The green and white flags are slightly east of the blue dot and represent the paksong area
Paksong is about 40 km east of Pakse, which is in the south of Laos and is known for its coffee plantations and excellent coffee beans. It’s very nice riding up there during the rainy season since everything is green, but traveling off the main road can be very tricky since the dirt roads are most often very wet and the fine red volcanic soil, good for coffee bean growing, is very dangerous for two wheel traveling. it’s extremely slippery. we slipped once putting a few scratches on the motorcycle.
At a local coffee shop, the baristo is very carefully creating a nice design on a cup of coffee with some milk.
The coffee processing factory.
Roasting tea leaves.
Here are ripe red coffee beans on the bush.
Here you see a ripe red coffee bean.Inside are two sections. One section has a very soft greenish gel like covering. the second section is a more dry brown half of the bean. When you separate the two halves, as you can see here, you notice the dryer brown section is somewhat concave.
To start out to this very beautiful place we booked a minivan to pick us up where we Dropped the motorcycle and drive us the next 2 to 3 hours to Vang Vieng. But the trip turned out to be a little bit more eventful and unusual than we planned. As soon as the minivan picked up all the passengers and then stopped off at their office in the center of Vientiane they change drivers and added a few more passengers. The new driver told the young Japanese fellow sitting in the front to move towards the back because they had a lady passenger who wanted to sit in front. After the Japanese customer moved to the back, the lady, Vietnamese, was told to sit also towards the back of the van while the driver instructed her male friend to sit in the front. From the accents we could tell that the new driver and the two customers were Vietnamese.
The driver spoke continuously in Vietnamese to the other passenger in the front. Nothing too unusual so far except the lie the driver told the Japanese customer. Then we got onto the expressway after going through the tollbooth, the driver pulled over and switched seats with the Vietnamese customer. I found this a little strange but, who knows, the passenger might’ve been an extra driver. Well, it turned out he wasn’t. After trying very nervously to get started in the minivan, continuing on the expressway, it seemed pretty certain he had no experience driving a minivan and was very uncertain on the road. After having almost 2 accidents driving the rest of the way to Vang Vieng I decided to ask the licensed driver of the minivan about the customer/driver. It turns out he was just a tourist, did not have a license to drive in Laos and could not speak Lao. What a strange trip. We survived.
the tourist driver on the lefttold by the hired driver to drive in the middle when going through the tunnelour driver so proud, sending a photo of the tourist driving to his friendkayakers enjoying the riverNice name for a restaurantBlue lagoon six, good for swimming Blue lagoon one. A hair-raising experience. See the jumper entering the water? Transparent wingsAre we in Paris? guess who!A resort in the countrysideRice fields enjoying a big, late lunchFrom part way up the trail to the viewpoint. The path was too slippery and dangerous to make it all the wayA group of Thai tourist rented ATVsA countryside homeBlue lagoon two US$100 a night bungalowsMy new best friendMice for saleconquering the calm rapidsKing of the lagoonblue lagoon sixpara planeing?Empty electric socket at the pool entrance. Shocking!The view from the roomMeeting some Japanese tourists on the way back to Vientiane
just after we left Koh Chang for Laos the main road on Koh Chang was partly destroyed, slid down the hill and destroyed my former bungalow on the beach
