(written by Nancy)

Well, we tried to get an early start this morning to avoid climbing in the heat but we were foiled by 3, count them 3, flat tires, all on my back tire.  Frustrating but thankfully we did not have a long day.  The first flat happened about 10k from the hotel – Dave found a big staple that had gone through the tire.  He changed it and then in the time he went to wash his hands the tube that he put in went flat.  We couldn’t really locate the source of the hole in the tube – tried to clean out all the little bits of debris and glass that get caught in tire from ordinary wear and put another tube in and hit the road.  Then about 1k up the road – bang, the tire goes flat again.  Grrr.  We pull over again and pull the tube out – a pretty decent hole in it, looks like operator error as it appears the tube got pinched when Dave put it in.  So, we pull out a nice new tube and go through the exercise again.

By this time it is over two hours since we left the hotel and we have made it a whole 10 kilometres.  As we packed things up again (a flat in the back tire means we have to take all the bags off the back) another touring cyclist pulls up.  Rene started riding in Uzbekistan about 4 months ago and arrived in Pakse on a bus from Vientiane this morning.  He was headed up to the Bolaven Plateau as well, so we leap-frogged each other on the way up.

The ride up was not too hard as it is quite a gradual climb.  It was pretty warm though – we stopped once to fill our water bottles and get a cold drink and we had pretty empty bottles by the time we arrived in Paksong.  The road was lined with houses, many quite simple homes with large packed dirt areas around them.  In front of many houses coffee beans were spread out drying on plastic sheets.  Any areas not filled with houses were covered with coffee bean plants – we could see the berries on the plants in varying states of ripeness.

We went by a group of people who were working in their front yard to remove the husks from the beans, using a small machine that spit the husk out one end and the beans out the other, into a bucket of water.  There was a big pile of the husks that smelled like it was fermenting – quite a strong smell.

We finally made it to Paksong about 1:30 under threatening skies.  We could feel the temperature change as we got into town – it is noticeably cooler up here.  We headed for the hotel that we had heard was the best place up here, which turned out to be at the top of a hill a decent distance from town.  It looked a bit deserted but finally someone came around to show us a room.  The rooms were big but they wanted 260,000 kip for them – seemed a tad overpriced for the area, particularly given that it did not appear there were any other guests.  We had not had lunch yet so decided to head back into the main town area to get something to eat and check out the other options.

As we waited to see the rooms up at the hotel we could see the rain start to sweep across the town area.  By the time we went back down the rain had stopped so we only had to deal with wet roads.  After searching around town a bit (dealing with Lonely Planet’s dubious directions again) and a few  pauses to sit out rain squalls that came through we finally found another guesthouse, the Savanna Guesthouse.  We pulled in and saw another couple of touring bikes – Hans and Lieneke, the Dutch couple we have run into a few times were here.  In fact they were sitting in a little restaurant right across the road.

We got checked in and headed over to get some food – it was almost 3pm and we had not had much to eat so were quite hungry.  As we sat waiting for our food and catching up with Hans and Lieneke up rode Rene so he joined us for a tasty lunch.  Not surprising, there was lots of bike touring chatter as well.

After getting cleaned up we headed up to the main road to go to a coffee shop run by another Dutch fellow, nicknamed Koffie, who is noted in Lonely Planet as a source of information about the area.  Hans and Lieneke had already stopped by there and had a great coffee.  Koffie fixed us a good coffee and told us a bit about the area.  Unfortunately he is not doing his coffee tours at the moment as he has no help in the shop because all hands are on deck in the fields helping out with the harvest.  Rather than the coffee tours, he did offer that we could help out picking coffee in the fields in the morning for a taste of what the workers do all day during harvest.  So that is what we will do for a bit in the morning before we head off to our next stop.  We can pick for as long (or short) as we want – and he will make us a nice coffee in the morning before we head off to get us started.  Koffie roasts his own coffee, everyday.  Life is to short to not drink fresh roast when you own a coffee plantation.

For dinner we headed back over to the restaurant across the road with Hans, Lieneke and Rene to share a nice meal of steamed fish, shrimp and rice.  Another tasty meal.  Off to bed now so we can get up early to pick coffee beans.  Tomorrow we will head to Tat Lo, a waterfall about 60k or so from here.  We’ll have a latish start with the picking activities, but much of our 60k is downhill, or so it is reported.

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