Pakse Loop: Day 2

Apparently a bite from this spider will cause temporary paralysis!

Our first stop of the day was a village tour with Captain Hook. No, really, he goes by the name Captain Hook.

He is a bit of a character and definitely the rebel of his village. He is quite open about his personal story which I think needs to be heard directly from him to be appreciated. I got the impression that although he is tolerated within his village, the others are not too happy about the fact that so many outsiders tromp through every day. That said, his tour was incredibly interesting (and at times, shocking).

We learned a lot about the way of life, practices and beliefs of his people. I'm really glad we stopped here and can highly recommend it.

After Captain Hook, we hit the road again. As both Nick and I had been on silk making tours in China, we opted to skip the silk stops along the way and just find a place to swim.

Tad Faek was just the ticket: quiet, peaceful and relaxing.

Tad Faek

Bamboo shelters with quite the view

The next section of road between Tad Faek and Tad Katamtok was quite long and uneventful, and when we reached the waterfall, we ended up regretting spending so much time at Tad Faek.

Tad Katamtok

Katamtok was easily the most beautiful waterfall we had seen so far, and by burning time elsewhere we had run out of daylight. I don't know if there is another path to the falls, but the route we did find (in 2016, mind you) was incredibly steep, muddy and tricky. We got about a third of the way down before we decided that it wasn't a good idea to proceed; it was such slow going that we would need to ascend in the dark. So with great regret, we climbed back to the road and hopped on the bike.

Our overnight stop was at the guesthouse at Tad Tayicsua. This is one of the nicest places we stayed in SE Asia! I wish we had taken pictures of the actual guesthouse! The woman who runs the place was Lao, but had lived in America for a long time. She had recently moved back and was developing her (not so little) parcel of paradise.

Our entire stay at Tayicsua was a joy as everything was so incredibly easy! Communication was easy as the owner spoke English so well, food was easy as the whole guesthouse was vegetarian and I didn't need to fret about what (if anything) I could eat, and sleep was easy as the bamboo huts were so nice and the beds quite comfortable. I almost wished we had more than one night night here!

Update: So it looks like things at Tayicsua have changed considerably since our visit. Reviews indicate that the property and trails have not been maintained after Covid and that overnight stays are no longer offered. What a pity. Hopefully it is returned to its former glory soon.