The tranquility of Tadlo

Days 67 - 69 (05/6/08 - 07/06/08): Tadlo, Laos

The sleeper bus, while comfortable, is not quite a bed and I only managed to get a couple hours of napping during the journey. However I am also at the point where I consider ten hours in a bus (at least a decent bus), as an average journey, and in all honesty it didn't really feel all that long. We arrived in Pakse about 7 in the morning, and as is typical in SE Asia, were assaulted by the waiting tuk-tuk drivers mob as we stepped off the bus. We politely declined them all, and walked the very short distance into the centre of town to find some breakfast. Pakse is a very small place with not much happening for it. Mainly it is used by tourists as a stepping stone to the surrounding countryside, which is exactly what I was doing.

I considered the possibility of going on a guided tour of the local area, however the rates charged by the tour company were horrendous, upwards up $90USD for a two day trip. The kind of money would normally last me over a week in this place! So I just decided to do it myself and head to a small village called Tadlo, which not many people have heard of, but I had been told about it through the travellers grapevine and decided to check it out. Garth and the two other English people we caught the bus with were planning to go straight on down to the Four Thousand Islands in the south of Laos, which is where I would be going after Tadlo.

For some reason in a lot of places in South East Asia, the main bus station is well outside town, and so we split a tuk-tuk for the 20 minute ride there. The 'Pakse Southern Bus Terminal' was little more than a large dirt patch surrounded with some market stalls. All manner of vehicles were in here, offering transport to all sorts of places. Our tuk-tuk driver sorted out the others, putting them on the right 'bus' to the Isles (although it was actually a large truck with bench seats at the back, filled with locals, sacks of rice and a couple of screaming cavorting piglets, and of course the odd chicken). I was led to a very old bus, where I too climbed over the sacks of rice and local children to a very small upright and uncomfortable seat. However after the lack of sleep from the overnight, I was soon fast asleep, sleeping through the bumpy dirt road and all. Arriving at the Tadlo intersection, and I joined the few other backpackers for the 2km walk down the road to the village. Despite the sweltering heat and our packs, the walk was very nice, passing through a traditional Lao village, complete with waving kids.

I found a very nice bamboo hut overlooking the river and the waterfall. I had a small walk around to explore the area, the waterfall is very nice, quite wide, and reasonably high, set in amongst large trees and dramatic cliffs. Further down the river you could see all the local children swimming and playing, while the woman washed clothes and the water buffalo took an afternoon dip to escape the heat. Despite my best efforts to stay awake, in the later afternoon I collapsed onto my bed and had a good nap to recover from a long night and a long day of travel.

The next day was exactly what I needed, a day of doing nothing to recover from the hectic nature of the previous three weeks. In my defense there was a light rain falling for most of the day, and so after a long sleep in, I spent most of my day sitting on my little deck (which was awfully rickety and was nowhere near level) on a plastic chair, watching the river and the waterfall and reading my book. I went and found a quite little eatery for dinner, and halfway through my meal, I got a wave from Charlie and Lou walking past. They had followed my tip on Tadlo and had just arrived that day. We joined together for a beer, and had fun talking to the old Lao lady who ran the place. Even though she must have been into her fifties, she was clearly as high as a kite and a great laugh. She explained to us with a great smile how she fostered her 'little plants' up on the hill. It was a very funny time, and something that could only happen in a place like Laos.

The following day the weather was a lot better, and so I met up with Lou and Charlie for the day's adventure. The guesthouse didn't have any more maps of the area, and we didn't really want to pay for a guide so decided to explore the river for ourselves. We knew there was another big waterfall upstream and so followed the river by clambering over fallen trees, skirting the banks and jumping from boulder to boulder, all the while humming the Indiana Jones theme. The waterfall upstream slowly came into view, and it was very impressive. There was a large sheer cliff, and at several points across its large width, the water streamed over in big frothing cascades. There was actually a small bamboo 'bridge' across the river, and this really was from an Indiana Jones movie. Very quickly we were swimming in the big pool underneath the waterfall, being careful not to get too close to the swirling currents under the falls or strong current taking the water down the rest of the river. After this wonderfully refreshing swim we found a path up the cliff and proceeded to follow the river further upstream. Up here there were lot of locals fishing and washing clothes, and as usual plenty of naked little kids playing in the water. We found little herds of goats, and several small fields of vegetables, irrigated by the river. Overall it was fantastic, a truly beautiful place where we really felt like we where in the middle of Laos.

For the return journey we decided to cross to the other side of the river and walk back along the path. We scouted an area that had a lot of boulders and rocks, and managed to make it most of the way across while still keeping dry. However the gaps between the rocks got too large and we were forced to wade across a quite deep, flowing section. Normally this would have been an easy swim, however we had bags with us and I had my camera. I managed to get across in the end, although my bag got wet (nothing to worry about). I managed to keep my camera dry by holding the camera bag handle in my mouth and keeping it just above the water. The hardest part was not laughing with Charlie and Lou as they looked back and saw the ridiculous scene of me in chest deep water frantically biting into my camera bag and trying to keep it above the water. Another fun experience to remember about Laos.

We walked down the small path through the countryside back to our village. Arriving there it was still too hot and we went for another swim in the river. There were a bunch of kids swimming in a pool amongst some rocks and small rapids and so we joined them, taking it turns to be pulled along by the river before standing up and moving back into the pool. The current was awfully strong in the shallow part, and it made for good fun. All the small kids actually stayed in the current and proceeded to go down through the next little series of rapids, screeching and hollering the whole way, before getting out and running back to us. I, unfortunately, followed them. While having fun swimming in the current, I didn't stop in time and got swept down over the rapids. I wasn't too worried as I had seen all the kids do it, and I was in the right position with my feet forward and body behind. Unfortunately, I then proceeded to smash my shins right into a rock, flipping me over, and I bounced through some other rocks before managing to catch myself and stand up before being swept down the next series (which the kids were staying well away from). Apart from a nasty bruise and scrape on my shins, I was fine, and I enjoyed a good laugh about it with Lou and Charlie.

Our last night in the beautiful little village of Tadlo was spent enjoying a few good drinks of the local whiskey while sitting on my balcony overlooking the river, bathed in the flickering glow of candlelight. As I have said before, Laos is an amazing place..