Pakse, Laos – And a highland paradise (coffee included)

Tad Fan Waterfall

Pakse is a beautiful small town in the southern part of Laos and right next to the entrance to the Paksong Highlands where they grow a lot of very delicious coffee and have some very beautiful waterfalls. It’s a really great place to visit and I recommend renting a motorcycle or car to go up into the Highlands and look around. There are also some beautiful temples to visit so just spend about four or five days there and enjoy.

how many languages?
future dinners
nice view
vegetable market
some like it hot!
lots of bread and sandwich makers in Laos (PATE)
some beautiful waterfalls have lost their support
coffee areas are HIGH
beautiful Nagas welcome and protect temples
Wat PU, UNESCO site, old hindu temple unfinished
cooks scrambling to meet this restaurant’s demand
stay right by the view and have a beer. morning is beautiful
just don’t fall backwards
zipline across the canyon? hell NO!
beautiful place to view the top of the waterfall
Tad Yeung waterfall
a little scary
a nearby botanical hot house area
never saw this one before
beautiful butterfly
very red!

going to DAO HUEANG market, biggest market in Pakse district

The song of coffee in paksong

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.