I wish I could have taken a picture of the beds inside, but this is the outside of the Vientiane to Pakse sleeping bus. Thanks to jones.emma@flickr
Ok a word to the wise and a precautionary tale.
While we were in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, we booked a one day tour to the Bolaven Plateau in advance, starting from Pakse, which was the next stop on our route. We spent an hour in a tour agency that was highly recommended by the Lonely Planet meticulously going through the different tours and seeing which ones would be appropriate for Katie.
We eventually settled on a one day tour to tea and coffee plantations, a couple of waterfalls, a market in a remote village and a ‘short’ gentle walk through the jungle from one waterfall to another.
This particular tour was stressed to be suitable for children by the agent so we went ahead and booked it. It was appealing because I knew Katie would be interested in learning about the process of making tea and coffee at the plantations and we both thought a short trek in the jungle would be a cool adventure to tell the folks back home about.
We travelled to Pakse the following day on a night bus, the journey of which probably deserves a post of its own! Rather than the night buses we were used to, where how luxurious the bus was dictated how wide the seats were and how long the leg room. This night bus was in a league of its own. It was made up of two levels of double mattresses with a shelf for our bags! We were given proper pillows and duvets (quilts). Now scoff at me if you want, but I would go back to Laos just to travel on one of those buses again.
The bus might have been a tad wider than your average bus but not much and they only run between Vientiane and Pakse because that is the only road in Laos in good enough condition to handle a full size bus. We noticed the looks of envy we got from others travelling on the more conventional style buses with reclining seats who were paying the same amount as us.
That afternoon we checked in with the Pakse branch of the tour agency ready for the tour the following day. I double checked with the man there that the tour was ok for children and he paused and shrugged. I wanted to ask more but there was a huge language barrier but he smiled and said ok, ok.
The following day we arrived at the agency nice and early and met the third member of our group a Malaysian who we later found out hunts wild pigs as a hobby in the jungles of Borneo.
The day started of really nicely and our tour guide was lovely, it was his part time job to fund his way through university, and we stopped off at a streetside stall and he bought us all fresh fruit to eat on the way.
The tea and coffee plantations were interesting, the usual stuff, we were bussed in, the guide gave us a short talk and then at the tea plantation they had a table selling their products. The coffee plantation was different, we parked up in a small muddy dusty field with a market, crossed a dirt track and walked through a hole in a medium height wire fence into a field of coffee. I am not even sure if we were supposed to be in there, but we walked freely and I remember finding out a lot and being really interested in what the guide had to say, even if I don’t remember any of it now!
Tea Plantation
The finished product
Coffee beans
Then we drove a short distance to the first of the waterfalls and we walked through a tourist village with wooden huts to a vantage point. The waterfall was wide and tall and we could feel the rumble of the water. It was hard to see what was water going down and what was clouds of water coming up as it bounced back up with such force.
We climbed to the top of that!
Then came the ‘short’ walk through the jungle. To say I thought I was going to die would be an overstatement, but there were several points where I thought we would be lucky to survive without a broken bone or a bad sprain. The mud underfoot was slimy from the moisture in the air from the waterfall and there was no turning back as the minivan had already driven off so the driver could have a nap and wait for us at the other end and no one had a mobile phone. The guide who was lovely was bounding along in just your average slip on pumps and I had on my super duper Merrells! The walk was way beyond Katies abilities and I was unbalancing myself trying to keep her up at the same time risking pulling her down a steep incline through tree roots if I did fall over.
The guide put Katie up on his shoulders and strode on ahead, I was holding on to every tree trunk, every twig and my stomach was in my throat every step of the way. I am a really strong walker usually and can handle most things but we were walking down slimy forty-five degree slopes. The Malaysian man kindly helped me, I was panicking for Katie but I had never felt so much of a tool in my life, I don’t know what those guys must have made of me.
We then had to take our socks and shoes off and wade across a fast flowing river that fed into the waterfall. Katie was carried across, I said the Lords Prayer and leapt across and landed on all fours. I was so happy to hear to be told to put my shoes and socks back on and walk round the corner of the next shrubs and we would be at the end.
When we turned the corner we still had thick jungle on our left and light green shrubbery on our right, behind which was a sheer drop to the bottom of the waterfall I asked where the minibus was and was told this would be where we would be stopping for a break before continuing. They hadn’t meant we’d reached the end after walking round the shrubs, just it was the stopping point for a break. The Malaysian sat down and lit a cigarette, I also sparked up, I try to smoke as little as possible, but by god, I needed one then. Katie bounded around the roots of the trees of the jungle to the left, saying, ‘that was so easy wasn’t it Mummy!’ Well yeah, it was if you were being carried! I was fuming with the tour agency who assured me repeatedly that families had done this tour and that it was completely suitable for Katie, but my legs were shaking and I was gasping, focusing too much on catching my breath to dwell on my murderous thoughts for long.
I’d barely finished my cigarette when it was time to go, Katie was put back up on the guides shoulders and we took off back into the jungle. I half expected the guide and his partner to pull out a couple of machetes and hack our way through, instead we had to make do with out hands.
We walked through a long flat area where I got attacked by huge red ants that had climbed up my trouser legs and were making a meal of my shins. This was not what I had in mind when I put ‘Walk in Jungle’ on my pre-trip to do list.
Much to Katies’ amusement I was jumping up and down shrieking while the Malaysian guy and the two guides were swiping at my legs with huge green leaves.
We then reached a cliff we had to climb down holding on to vines and tree roots, when a vine gave way in my head and I all but landed on the Malaysians’ head. There was a moment then when I seriously thought I was not going to live to see lunch at the end of the trek, but this thought gave way to near on hysteria when Katie started screaming about how everyone could see my knickers! That was the least of my worries. By that point I had no pride left and was more concerned about falling several feet and having to be airlifted out.
But we made it, we survived. Katie had been carried most of the way and I had no worse injuries than some scrapes and grazes, and some angry welts that the man eating red ants had given me as a souvenir.
After a stop for lunch it was time to visit a remote market and then visit a cultural village.
A beautiful little girl in the cultural village
An indigineous man giving a deomonstration
The final stop of the day
Later on, when we reached Borneo we visited the Bako National Park we again went for a short trek in the jungle, this time it was much more pleasant but not without it’s own set of adventures and crisis. But I’ll save that for another post.
