Epic.: water

The second day of my trip to Laos I began making my way to what is actually the least populated area of the country. I would later find out that in this area of Laos, less than 4% of locals were ethnic Laos, with over 97% belonging to various hill-tribes, who I would encounter often on my journey. I really recommend the fantastic Wikipedia article regarding this province (and focus of much of my Laos travels for this trip). It has very good information about the area, and gives great information on how the hill-tribes are perceived by other “more civilized” people.

Speaking of the area I visited, I forgot to include my customary map of where I went so you can gauge where I was in the world:

I went to the southern part of Laos. Other than Si Phan Don, this area is not very heavily trafficked, and I got a nice picture of remote life, away from tourism, in Southeast Asia. It is worth noting, however, that even though I was almost as far away from the beaten path as you can get, there was still one guesthouse in the larger towns I stopped at for the night. The area is most famous for the Bolaven plateau and its stunning waterfalls (which you will, of course, get to see through my photographs). In retrospect, I would absolutely love to spend a full thirty-days or so in Laos, going from the top of the country to the bottom. On my itinerary would be a big loop from top to bottom in Laos, hitting the Bokeo National Preserve Gibbon Experience, then Luang Prabang and the lovely waterfalls near it, then Vang Vien for tubing and caving and fun, then the Plain of Jars by Phonsovan, then farther south to spend a few days on the Bolaven Plateau, before chilling out on Si Phan Don. Sometime along the way I would hit at least 1 three-day trek with Green Discovery. I write this as much for myself as anyone else, but if you’re going to Laos, I suggest you take the time and make this full journey.

Anyway, I started my trip about the plateau by checking out one of the many waterfalls:

The natural beauty of the terrain here is really breathtaking. Mountain streams are everywhere, with clear, fresh water and large clean stones and boulders. Everything felt so brisk and clean in comparison to Bangkok, it was just very refreshing.

This is a picture of one of the many schools I saw and gives you an impression of the overall plateau view. I saw so many kids walking to school (I believe I already related my stories of their delight in seeing me!), I sometimes wondered how there could be so many happy kids running around.

I then stopped at another waterfall on a whim. It wasn’t even on my map, and turned out to be very nice. Here’s a view of the river feeding the falls. You’ll notice there is actually a lone monk wandering around in the photo. Strangely enough, I actually ran into him about an hour after I took this photo and found out he was Thai. I conversed with him with the little Thai I had and he was very pleased to speak Thai with me.

Here is the beautiful view looking down from the top of the falls. These grassy canyons and basins were just beautiful. Yes those are people!

Here’s the falls from down in the basin.

And the falls in their entirety:

Later on in the day as I wandered, I decided to take a chance and stopped at a school that was being let out. The kids were all lined up (in order of height—see photo), and going through military-like positions of attention and at-ease. I motioned to the teacher to see if I could take pictures and he smiled big and encouraged me. Here they are, in front of their flag of Laos on a bamboo pole. I should mention that oftentimes I would see the Laos flag flown hand in hand with the hammer and scythe—what a strange sight! You can see the schoolhouse in the background.

The kids sang the anthem as they lowered the flag. Adorable!

Here’s the bunch leaving school. You can see by their distance that the kids were afraid (though amused) of me at first. I motioned for them to come over so I could get a photo with them. None would get near me, until a lone boy (the bravest of the group), stood next to me for a picture. More and more kids gathered until I had a good group.

They warmed up to me:

The kids would often have me stand up straight and then mark their height next to me, amazed at my height. This was true of adults as well. In a small market I visited, I was made to stand for about 5 minutes while different townspeople compared their height with mine (I’m only 6’2”). They motioned to my skin often and pointed to my freckles and eyes. They were also incredibly kind and warm—an older lady motioned for me to come over and eat some rolls with her. I did, and they were delicious!

However, all this would pale in comparison the adventure that would soon befall me.

Originally, my plans for this weekend were to visit the "dark heart" of Thailand, the rich forest and national park of Khao Yai. However, on Friday morning my plans changed drastically after Tyler didn't feel up to the trip. So... I hopped onboard another traveling group for the weekend and took the first bus to Kanchanaburi.

Upon arriving at Kanchanaburi I soon realized that the trip group was too big of a group for my tastes. I've been on some reasonably sized excursions but I decided early that this group was just too big. Skylar was of a like mind regarding the too-large size of the group, so we set off on our own. Our first stop was to rent some motorbikes in Kanchanaburi. And, as chicks dig scooters, Vanessa hopped on Skylar's bike and came with.

At this time in the story I need to mention a sub-plot regarding FATE. You see, many of my comrades started poking fun at me after they discovered a fantasy book amongst my belongings in my room called "The Dragonbone Chair." Ever since, I have acquired a sort of self-depreciating humor regarding dragons; constantly referring to them as my favorite thing. Skylar, on the other hand, actually has a legitimate fate centered around his holy number of "four." He decided that after numerous instances of four playing a part in his life, that he would adopt it as his "fate number," so to speak. Therefore, he uses it as his lucky number, and constantly notes his run-ins with the number. He even has a tattoo, circular with four wings made up of four rods each (see later picture). Vouching for his instances with four, at dinner we were numbered off to keep track of bills. True to his trend, Sky was number four. You may wonder how my dragon-liking fits in here. Well, after renting our scooters, Sky approached a table full of helmets to pick his out. All helmets were plain... except one. Of course, it had a dragon painted on it. As Sky didn't know abot my dragon-jokes, he snatched it up (as any sane person would) and tried to put it on. By this time I had begun to weep slightly as I wouldn't receive the dragon helmet. Providence was on my side, and the helmet did not fit Skylar. Needless to say, it fit me perfectly, thus becoming mine. Things were looking down for Sky, until we sat on our scooters, realizing Sky was on number 18 and I was on number... 4. This was obviously some sort of astrological error, so we switched bikes. Fate!

But I digress!

We set off on our super-fun Wave 100's for "Hell's Pass," build by the same POW's featured in the motion picture "A Bridge Over the River Kwai." Sadly, the park was closed upon our arrival (only 100cc engines on our scooters!), so I will have to come back another day (which is easy because Kanchanaburi is only a few clicks away from Bangkok)!

So, we continued our ride north, soaking in the scenery and relishing being away from Bangkok. I even saw a corn field! This wasn't the only thing that reminded me of home this trip. While riding my scooter, I got cold for the first time ever in Thailand. As we rode, there was a slight sprinkling of rain.

This, coupled with the higher altitude and wind from the scooters, gave me a chill which felt just like autumn back home. This had the surprising effect of making me miss home quite a lot, in particular the fall, which is my favorite season. Here the colours do not change; the weather does not change (except to get even hotter); and there is no Labor-Day visits to orchards!

We bedded down in a northern city (I believe called Tha Pa Phum). As we bedded down for the night I realized something funny about our covers (I have a feeling they were made in Thailand). True to my caracterization of Thailand and bad translations:

"We want to sleep and make us happy dreams."

Now, because the second part of this entry deals with a waterfall, I know what everyone is thinking. True to what I've said about Thailand, it is (apparently) made up of three things: badly translated signs, waterfalls, and monkeys. Believe it or not, we didn't see any monkeys this trip, but we did see a: badly translated sign eluding to the presence of monkeys, which I think counts. Oh... and it was at a waterfall.

And what a waterfall it was!!!

It was made up of seven tiers (count them with me!): ...

I know you may think I have digitally alterred these photos. Let me clarify that the water you see here is the natural colour of the water. It had some mineral in the water that made it a very bright blue. You may also see photos in black and white with blue as the only colour, this was not coloured in, but was taken with a special setting on the camera which isolates a colour and removes all others. It worked very well here as the water was so blue!

The waterfalls were in Erawan Park in Kanchanaburi (a very nice scooter ride away from the town proper). I do recommend it if you would like to see a park that looks man-made it is so nice. It is best described as a delightful collection of scenic waterfalls, rocks, roots, vines, and (the cherry on top, so to speak) butterflies fluttering everywhere. It looks far more like something Disney created than anywhere I've ever been. I don't know if I'll be able to match the caliber of this waterfall on the rest of my journeys, so I took a lot of pictures (they're free).