We arrived in pakse around 0700 this AM. The bus ride wasn't the best but certainly not the worst either. I can probably count on one hand how many times this has happened though: I slept like a champ while Carolyn tossed and turned all night.
Anyway, the bus dropped us off about 15 minutes outside of town which meant we had to take a tuk-tuk or song-tew from there. This actually happens at just about every single bus station in these countries. The tuk-tuk mafia has paid the bus companies to deposit their passengers far enough away to require a tuk-tuk. Ahhh the warm embrace of capitalism! While getting into our song-tew we noticed the parking had more trash than normal and a good portion of it wasn't all that bad. In fact we saw some couches and other luxuries you don't generally see in parking lots everyday. Further down we saw the underlying issue: Seems a huge fire had broken out the night before and destroyed a whole row of buildings. Sad sight to see for sure.
In the city we walked to a couple places and settled on a decent hotel called the Thanong Luang. Got an A/C room with hot water for 110000 kip / night. Not too terrible but maybe we can do better tomorrow. Oh I forgot to mention that this place doesn't have wifi :(. In fact non of the hotels we went to had it. Well not for free anyway.
Earlier we (and by we I mean me, Carolyn doesn't even drink coffee) decided the only reason we were coming here (Pakse) is to take a coffee tour. Apparently just about all Lao coffee is grown near here on the Bolevan Plateau. The organized tours seemed a little pricey and long so after some quick research we figured we could do it ourselves. HA!!!
We haggled with a few song-tew's before finding one who said 30,000 kip to the Southern bus terminal (where local buses leave for Paksong which is where the coffee is). As we get in the driver asks us where we're going an after hearing our answer I guess he decides we don't need to go to the southern bus terminal (which is 8 km away). Instead he takes us about 3km down the road and tells us the bus is there and collects the 30,000 kip. Of course we now find ourselves in a giant parking lot full of messy shops and song-tew's full of people. Seriously there are probably 98 vehicles and hundreds of people here. It's a mad house. We walk around and ask a few people but don't get much of a reply. Finally we find a driver and a woman who both laugh and tell us no one is going to Paksong from there. Great. However they are going to the southern bus terminal and for 20000 kip we can tag along. Sold.
We pull into another large parking area with millions of people, thousands of shops and hundreds of song-tew's. After some haggling we find one going to Paksong for 40000 kip. Best part is they have a rooster in the back!!! Woohoo! We're also the only Gringos in the vehicle as everyone else looks to have done some shopping and is heading home along the way to Paksong.
The drive is nothing special except the random watermelon stand where there are atleast several hundred thousand watermelons. Oh and we did see an awful lot of cows as well.
We arrive in Paksong and honestly have no clue where we're going. The song-tew driver lets is off at a market and then we have to figure the rest on our own. Making our way through town it's clear they don't get many gringos here. Lots of staring, women running and mothers screaming for their children to beware of the white devils. Hehehe, it wasn't that bad but there were a lot of stares. Anyway we find the coffee place which as luck would have it is the only place in town with a sign that says 'Coffee.' I'm oozing anticipation at this point. Fresh coffee, wandering through the fields of that special bean, picking a few, smelling the beans, licking the beans. I feel like I'm about to enter Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. I skip into the shop and shriek how excited I am. Then happily ask to take the coffee tour. Dark clouds appear out of no where, Voldemort peaks his head out of the closet and a huge pig snorts and farts nearby. The lady then lays the hammer down: 'no tour. You have to book it in Pakse.' Pakse, the city we just managed to leave. Deflation. Carolyn looks at me, I look at Carolyn. The only thing left to do is have a fabulous cup of coffee. So that's what I did. I had a great cup of coffee. No scratch that. I had a great shot of coffee. The lady clearly thought I was from Greece or Turkey or something cause she brought me a shotglass instead of a cup. Oh well. So we made our way back to Pakse, riding with some locals who were cutting up some mushrooms and a local guy who was so drunk he fell over in the song-tew (which almost made the trip worth it). So after all was said and done, my 3 ounce shot of coffee cost is $20. But we made some memories to last a lifetime :)
Tomorrow we're going to take a real tour and maybe see some actual coffee being made!!!!!
Pics:
1) the $20 coffee.
2) The Blues.
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