Goin North and Obama Opinions

Well, after what i will redundantly refer to as an historic election, which it was in so many ways, people in Asia have had one response: Great! From fellow travelers to locals (the ones we could talk to), everyone seems very happy. On election day, which was really the 5th here with the time difference, we left Pakse for a two day motorcycle ride through the Bolaven Plateau, where we spent the night in the village of Tadlo. Tadlo's most exciting offerings are waterfalls, as there are three within a few miles of the town, but no one there seemed to know one way or the other about the election. So we paid a ton for slow internet and were overwhelmed with happiness and american pride when we saw the NYTimes headline: OBAMA. The few other people at Tim's guesthouse in Tadlo were happy for Jess and I, but we failed to celebrate Obamarama with the traditional Lao moonshine, lao-lao, which accompanies all special occasions here. Probably for the better, since we had to ride about 100 km the next day on out motorcycle. People that we have run into more than once along the trail here had big smiles for us when we saw them, especially thos ethat were also watching the early returns come in with us in Pakse before we left for Tadlo. What was interesting was an article in the Bangkok Post, and english-language daily paper, which highlighted McCain's respectful and gracious remarks in conceding the election. To paraphrase, he said that he was ready to start working with Barack to get things back on track, and this writer felt that this was a great example of what Thai legislators need to do to heal long standing divisions, which have led to protests and some violence in Bangkok (at the same time we were there, actually). That was cool on a lot of levels I thought, and hopefully a sign of good bipartisan efforts to solve problems instead of bickering and mudslinging.
But enough abuot that, I'm sure all of you have heard just a little bit about the election. Back to our travels, since we are the important people on this blog. Like I said at th estart, we went from Pakse to the Bolaven plateau by motorcycle. Now, anyone that knows me would be surporsed to know that I had driven a motorcycle, much less for 2 straight days. The truth is, we had a moto-based daytrip on our last day in Pakse, so it was three days. And I had to shift gears, as there is nary an automatic motorcycle in Pakse. We went to Champasak to see some Angkor-esque ruins, called Wat Phu. They have not been maintained or refurbished as heavily as the Temples of Angkor, but what Wat Phu does have is serenity. There were no more than 20 people at the ruins when we were, and we were almost alone for parts of our exploration. The basic layout is like this: two large pools separated by a causeway (just like Davis!!), which was lined with hundreds of 4-foot tall Linga statues, hindu phallic symbols. After the pools, there are two former palaces, now pretty crumbled, and then steps up the side of a mountain leading to a temple complex. the steps have trees carefully planted along each side and the views over the Mekong river valley are truly stunning. Also, the temples contain a natural spring, which we saw a tour guide use to fill up a water bottle (but we weren't thinking about drinking from), a loarge rock carved like an Elephant, and another with a crocodile shape chiseled out about 5 inches deep. Pretty cool all in all, and even after 3 days of similar temples at Siem Reap still pretty fresh in our minds. We got some great photos with our remaining camera, and will put some up soon. So that was Wat Phu in Champasak.
Next was Tadlo and the waterfalls and road of the Bolaven Plateau, which rises out of the Mekong Valley. The biking was fun for a while, but any more than about 45 minutes at a time got to be pretty tough on our tender backsides. The roads were almost all paved, with minor exceptions totalling about 25 km and spread evenly ove rthe two days. Teh landscapes were beautiful, lush green in all directions, lots of coffee and tea plantations, but also small scale fruit farming and undisturbed jungles. The most common traffic we passed were kids riding bikes to school in the villages and a random smattering of livestock, mostly cows and pigs but goats too, and dogs, which run pretty loose and sometimes take naps in the road. We stopped at Tad Paxuam waterfall on the way up, and also visited a small village and saw these tree houses where people stay, right by the falls and set in the jungle. Would have been cool, but we had a schedule to keep. Our only mishap was a rear flat tire, which led to me pushing the bike up a hill to the next town and a new tube popped in for only 6 dollars (50,000 kip). Within a half hour we were back on the road. Our first day in tadlo was uneventful except for the big Obama news, as rain and muddy water kept us from swimming.
We slept in a bit and made up for lost time the next day. Following VERY lose directions, we rode out to a nearby village where 4 boys about 10 years old coralled us and led us up to som egreat pools right below a tall waterfall, maybe 100 feet or so. Worried about leaving the bike unattended, we still had a great time in the deep cool water, and paid the kids 18,000 kip (around 2 bucks) when we made it safely back to the cycle. We then drove up to the top of the same falls, which afforded wonderful views of the villages and land below, and some scenic (but shallow) wading/swimming holes. We were in a bit of a hurry, as you never know when it might rain and we had to cross a decent chunk of unpaved clay road before breathing easily. We made it across with no problems, and had a good time waving at all the school kids and other people we passed, who seemily happily surprised to see two Farang riding by them. We ha d aminor scare when our gas guage read empty and the only town on the map for 35 km was completely out of gas, but we got some bootleg petrol on the roadside and made it safely to the Shell station in Paksong, which is not exactly a booming metropolis. Tehn we were fighting the daylight as we stopped to see two more falls, both down very slippery roads which tested my copious riding experience (Jess walked so i wouldn't fall over for a few puddly stretches), and got some more good views of quickly moving water. Where was Nick Abrams when we needed him? Probably throwing himself over a waterfall in nepal i guess. We made it back to Pakse just after dark and had enough time for a hurried dinner before our overnight bus to Vientiane, the capitol of Laos. Vientaine is pretty but not real exciting, and with the not so lovely sleep on the bus, we've had a bit of a lazy day, although we did walk a bit. I got a good Lao massage, basically the sme as a Thai massage but in Laos instead, and Jess pampered herself with a mani-pedi and some other girly stuff. She did somehow skip the "Princess Treatment", which lasted several hours and cost 550,000 kip (which is really like 60 bucks, but sounds way better in kip). I was proud of her restraint, and so we had some good chinese dumplings andcame to check out the good ole internets, which gets you completely up to speed. Tomorrow we will head further north, to Vang Vieng and then either to Luang Prabang or possibly back down to Vientiane to see a Buddhist festival. Its all up in the air right now, but thats how the Farang Express rolls. Keep the responses coming, and thanks, Colin, for the idea. Hope you like dthe way it turned out.

Dave