Just got back from a night on the Boloven Plateau. It's a highland area east of Pakse. Hired some motorbikes with some new friends and headed off a bit before midday yesterday. As we ascended up to the plateau we stopped off at a couple of waterfalls which were pretty impressive. We came to a town called Paksong and had some late afternoon lunch before splitting with a couple of girls who were with us as they were heading to Vientiane on the night bus.

So we thought we had better find some accomodation for the night and headed off along the loop we were travelling on. Once we left Paksong we were on dirt road, it was an effort to avoid the numerous pot-holes and the corrugation also kept our speed to about 50km per hour. We came to another small town about 30km past Paksong as the light started to fade and asked someone (actually tilted our heads to the side in a sleeping pose) if there was any accomodation in this town. They didn't seem to understand so we split up and to ask some of the other town folk if they could point us in the right direction.

One man could speak a little english and suggested a homestay which is by a waterfall about another 20 km further along the road. On one of our previous stops we had spoken to a guy who mentioned this place so we thought we would continue on and find it before dark.

So, we are riding along and it's getting darker by the minute. We ride up a side road for a while until we come across a sign to the waterfall (no mention of a homestay). We have a team meeting to discuss whether we should continue or head back to Paksong, which is about an hour away, but we decide to keep on going.

It's getting pretty dark and one of the guys has slipped a couple of times on his bike. The road turns into a bush track, then into a single lane. We all start to come to the realisation that we might have to sleep in the jungle for the night.

With only minutes to spare before it's actually night time the lane turns back into a track and a house appears. A woman comes out and I do the sleep pose. It is the homestay!

So in we go and find out how much it is going to cost us. As it is now night time and there isn't another place to stay for 50km we are expecting it to cost a bit. But it is only 25000 kip (around 4 dollars) each. We are then given some dinner which is a plain chicken soup (mostly bones), with some ants added for flavour, and som sticky rice. We are just glad we aren't sleeping in the jungle for the night.

The sleep I had was actually one of the worst on record. No mattress, just a mat. One small pillow so I used my towel. The mosquito net had holes in it everywhere so we all packed on as much insect repellent as possible and I slept in my clothes for added protection.

In the morning we were all up early, eager to get back on the road (we didn't ask for any breakfast). So off we go and for some reason decide that we need to go back in the direction we came instead of continuing along. We then take a number of wrong turns and end up at some abandoned cement works about an hour later. One of the guys is running out of fuel and part way along another road I make the call that it can't be the way as there is grass growing up to your waist in the middle of the road and so no cars have been using the road.

We head back the way we came and at about lunch time end up back at the last town we are at so that we can get some fuel and breakfast.

I was going to continue on with the others for a bit longer but as it was now the afternoon and I have a night bus to catch I headed back along the road we came until I arrived back in Pakse.

Now I am waiting for the night bus which means I will get another fantastic night's sleep :)