Bolaven means Land of the Laven people. The Laven ethnic group of Laos once dominated this area. Today, the plateau is mostly inhabited by Lao as well as four other ethnic groups (which have probably intermarried). We have visited the place of Alak tribe and another ethnic settlement composed of five ethnic tribes.
We started out from Pakse at 8 am, as I was the last to be picked up. Our group was composed of young backpacking tourists (about half my age, I think) from the Netherlands and Switzerland. Our first stop was the Sinouk tea plantation. Here, our tour guide explained to us the processing of tea leaves and how they make green tea, black tea, and oolong tea.
Our tour guide showing the tea plantation.
How tea leaves are dried to make black tea.
The tea plant. Only the shoots are used to make green, black and oolong tea. The difference is in the drying. Oolong tea is made from a more mature shoot.
Camellia sinensis flower, tea plant.
So that we will not get bored, our tour guide took us to our first waterfalls, the Tad Fane, said to be the highest in the region as it plunges down to a gorge from 120m within a dense forest. The falls can only be viewed from the opposite side. It is not accessible to tourists. I am not sure whether anyone has been down the river where the waterfalls go down to since we can't even see the bottom of the gorge from where we were.
My tourmates.
Tad Fane waterfalls.
This is a common flower in the forest but I can't find the name of this flower.
Our next stop was at a family-owned coffee plantation. Our tour guide showed us different types of coffee such as the Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica. We were also given glasses of hot coffee to taste. I wasn't feeling too good and the coffee taste bitter so I decided not to drink it at all. I was in no mood for coffee. Here are some photos of Arabica coffee in the nursery and liberica coffee:
Arabica coffee
"This is the arabica coffee. It doesn't grow very tall unlike the liberica coffee"
Coffee beans of Arabica coffee
Coffee beans of Arabica coffee.
Roasted coffee beans
Our tour guide preparing our coffee
Sunflower in the yard
Peace lily in the yard
Finally, we were on our way to the next waterfalls... Tad Yuang. The steep steps were challenging.
Tad Yuang falls is quite a refreshing sight
.
The climb back up is even more challenging.
We sat beside this tall tree to rest and catch our breath.
We headed to lunch because our stomachs were grumbling.
