Tripping in Southern Laos

Although illegal and prohibited smoking joints is widely accepted in Asia and weed itself is easily accessible. Usually it's enough to go to one of the bars and ask bartender for it. The same is with all happy pizzas, happy shakes, mushroom shakes, happy chocolates.
I still get dizzy and want to throw up after chocolate that I had. To be honest I've tried them before, but in Cambodia and even though you could taste weed in it, it did not have any major effect over me. On my last night at 4000 Islands I also had one. And that one was a killer. It must have been stuffed with opium or mushrooms maybe, cause I practically did not know what's going on. I barely made it home, where when I lay in bed I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Worlds has been joining and separating, stripes, lines, dots, checks. Interfering, separating, running through each other. Nightmare.
When I got up in the morning I've thought it's better, I had my breakfast, made it to Champasak. But there again, the only thing that I was able to do was go to bed at 4 p.m. and sleep till the next morning until I was woken up to go for sightseeing of Wat Phu. Khmer temple (Angkor Wat like) dating between 6th and 12th centuries. No idea how I've survived that, bearing in mind that I barely had any food the day before, small baguette for breakfast today, I was still weak and my stomach was still sick. But I've made it and even made it to Pakse, where I checked in to Sabaidy 2 GH, I had some food and went to bed again. I was as unsocial as unsocial anyone can be. If you know me, than you know that it's completely opposite my normal attitude, so I must have been feeling really bad. But good amount of sleep again made it and on the third day I was pretty much ok, except my stomach that is still sick and not very keen on digesting, I think, so it still hurts. So I did some walking in Pakse and spend most of the time on the internet and reading. Something that I did not do since ages. And you might think that during traveling you have time for reading ;-)
On the fourth day I was almost good, only during the day stomach was sometimes strange, but finally in the evening I got my appetite back. Probably after whole day sightseeing of Bolaven Plateau.
First we saw Tad Fane - waterfall, next tea plantation - where we were presented with how green and oolong tea are made (or other way round?), than coffee plantation (now I know how to recognise Arabica from Robusta. To be honest I was told that in Dalat already, but I forgot) and Yuang Waterfall and Alak village (where they practice Animism and Shamnism) and Katu village (where owner of the GH where I stay with some help from people who I met in Sapa and who recommended me this GH built a school. She is Polish and he's Belgian and they met Mr Vong - who runs this place and speaks some polish as he studied in Poland - 5 years ago and he ask them if they would like to get involved into building a school and library and they've helped to gather some founds).
In Katu I took insane amount of photos of kids. Is my photography talent revealing right now?

Wat Phu - can you spot the similarity between it and Angkor Wat?



Wat Phu - view from the top of the complex



Wat Phu - Elephant rock

Wat Phu

The most ugly temple I've seen so far. Pakse

Tea bush. To make tea, only leaves from the top of the tree are picked and depending on the process green or oolong (red) or black tea can be made.

Coffee trees. Arabica coffee has small trees with big beans. Robusta's trees are big and beans are small. They are also processed differently. Robusa is first dried and next pelled. Arabica is first pelled and next dried.

Tad Fane

Drying robusta coffee beans



Robusta coffee ghost



Waterfall number 2

Alak village. They believe in animal spirits, and prolly in the soap operas living (see satellite dishes, officially there is no power in those villages, but still everyone has TV set, satellite dish and power generator)

Rooster - coffee guard

Drying coffee

School kids in Katu - villae where school and library were build partially from the founds gathered by the couple that I met in Sapa

School building build with the money gathered in Poland, Belgium, France, Germany and Lao

School kids

Boy

Is she copying homework from her mate?

Gangsta

Chcesz fangę w nos?

My favourite pic. Femme fatale.

Ready, set, go

In Katu kids smoke water pipe together with their parents. They even hold it for them. I had a draw as well.