Motorin'! (What's your price for flight?)

2 girls, 2 bikes, 3 days, 6 waterfalls, and 1 serious Bolevan Plateau.

We rented the motorbikes in Pakse, stashed our large bags in some converted shower that is now a storage room, and hit the road. Did we know how to ride manual transmission motorbikes? No. Did we know where we were going? Not really. Did we have any gas? Absolutely not. But with the wind in our dorky and questionably protective helmets, we took off headed east on Rte. 13 out of Pakse with the aim of getting to Tad Lo for the night.

We rode about 30 kilometers to the turn off to route 20, negotiating some seriously hazardous traffic circles and livestock on the way. We passed through a number of villages, including one where all the young men were blacksmiths pounding the hell out of some dangerous looking cutting instruments, and one with a heck of a lot of pigs. Turning off down a side road in the jungle, we found this perfect ecolodge that straddles a waterfall and was totally empty of people. Crossing the perilous-looking bamboo bridge, we ordered our food and wondered how such a place remained in operation - and then the 3 busloads of thai tourists arrived and we understood. It was beautiful and the sun was shining, and we rode on through the afternoon, eventually ending up in tad Lo (after overshooting, asking for "directions", and finally finding the little town) for the evening. We strolled up to the waterfall, Kate went for a swim, we had some drinks as the sunset, and some dinner at our hostel, and found ourselves in bed well before 10 pm, with the sounds of the local cattle and roosters making us giggle.

Next morning, we got up early and biked it on up to the next waterfall up the road, a detour that led is down a dusty dirt track to a dusty dirt walking path. The path ended at the top of an extremely steep waterfall - beware the local drunk who fancies a lovely walk in this village. We were the only ones there, and got to climb all over the top of the falls, which fell off into an incredible view of the valley and villages bellow. Back on our bikes, we got gas from a little roadside stand and the proprietors laughed at our ignorance of everything (which is a regular ritual these days). We went back to Tad Lo and continued up route 20, turning on a dirt road that took us 30 km up to Tha Thaeng, through native villages and crazy amounts of dust. We passed hordes of children, who would wave and shout at us as they carried their tools either to the fields or back from them, we couldn't really tell which.

Up in Tha Thaeng, we stopped for lunch at a tiny roadside spot, covered in road dust and our own general filth. We tried to order some food, but the waitress just looked at us funny, so we pointed to what other folks were eating and got some noodle soup. When we were almost finished with our meal, a group of local businessmen came in and sat down nearby. One of them, the one that could speak some English, sat with us and talked with us for a while. Then his boss sat down and bought us some beers and invited us to sit with all of them, toasting us every two minutes with cheers of "My boss say you beautiful!" and "100%!" (which may mean either "drink the whole thing" or "We are totally cheersing right now" or anything else). They tried to get us to put our motorbikes in the car so they could drive us back to Pakse and we could all see the countryside together. It was hard for them to understand that the riding was part of the experience. Eventually, we left, but not before they asked Kate if she was married and why not and whether she wanted to be.

We went on to Paksong, a little nothing town on top of the plateau with a market and a soccer field and a guest house. We poked through the market. We watched the boys play soccer. We went to bed well before 10 pm. The next morning we got up early and went for a walk, much to the astonishment of everyone around us. Each passing motorbike and truck and tractor stared incredulously and offered us a ride. Why on earth would you ever walk down this road?? they seemed to be asking.

From Paksong we rode about 10 kilometers to Tad chuamp falls, an unbelievable waterfall with a path that wound from the top down the 50 or so meters to the crazy bottom. 2 kids tailed us the whole way and it was steep and slippery and spectacular. Next we went to Tad Fan waterfall, where 2 streams come out of the side of a cliff to fall 120 meters into a pool bellow. We had lunch at a lodge there and climbed around before heading to the third waterfall of the day down a ridiculously winding dirt road bordered by poinsettia trees. The water fall was lovely, but the best part was a bamboo raft that you could pull yourself out into the pool of the waterfall, watching it crash down around you. Thoroughly waterfalled out by this point, we got back on the bikes and headed back to Pakse, passing through village after village with the same smiling kids and bamboo houses and satelite dishes. Getting back to Pakse, we returned our bikes and dropped off our laundry and showered, taking beers on the roof top of the Pakse hotel as the sun set on the Mekong and we toasted our 3 day adventure.