Bolaven Plateau Day 1

We got an early morning bus to Pakse, slept one night in a really cheap but super comfy and quiet dorm, and then set off the next morning for the Pakse scooter loop.

There are a lot of coffee plantations with their own restaurant/ cafés along this first section of the loop, but they kind of seemed like a tourist trap to us; plus, we lived in the coffee region of Colombia (whose coffee is way better by the way, sorry Laos 🙊). Needless to say we sped by them and arrived in the afternoon at our fancy accommodation on Fandee Island.

This is a magical little island that was created with care and love and attention to detail. There are absolutely no plastic water bottles allowed (they have free filtered water and reusable cups there), and also no toilet paper allowed- water to wash only! So this ecological place is really making a difference, and I was of course so enthusiastic about their policies.

3 of the island dogs accompanied us on a walk to our first waterfall of our journey, which was only about a 15 minute walk. Young kids were playing and even got some tourists to do some arm wrestling with them and jump off the rocks into the waterfalls. I watched the kids feeling so happy to see them playing while I strummed my ukulele, which they all came over to listen to intermittently between running around. We strolled along the river afterwards until the sun was setting.

I got the absolute best night of sleep ever. It was so magical being rocked gently on our little dock in the river, the purple curtains drawn around us to provide not only privacy but the feeling of being cozy in our clear little dome, as we gazed up at the (so luckily!!!) very clear night sky and watched the stars as we drifted off into dreamland.Read more