We arrived into Pakse at about 6 in the morning - because we were struggling to find accommodation all the others decided just to go straight to 4000 islands but I wanted to visit some of the waterfalls that surround Pakse so I decided to stay and signed up for a day tour that day.

The tour consisted of visiting some tea and coffee plantations, waterfalls and some local villages. The Tea and coffee plantations were interesting and I even managed to drink a small cup of coffee - I still don't really like it! The first waterfall we visited was absolutely stunning - it was really tall, really magnificent. After this we visited a local village, this isn't really my thing, I'm not a massive fan of looking at people and having forced unnatural interaction with locals, however, it was interesting to see their village and it felt like we were having little impact on their lives (other than providing some money). After lunch we visited another village and a school. After that we went to another waterfall where I got to go for a swim, this was another fantastic waterfall and then after that there was one last beautiful waterfall - Laos has a lot of really nice waterfalls, probably even more than New Zealand! The following day I was off to 4000 islands to relax for my last few days in Laos.