You've never been to Pakse

if you haven't had foe at the Lankham Hotel, but I'll start at the beginning.


Up on the Bolaven Plateau I met a guy driving one of those Honda 200cc Enduros. He told me that he rented it from the Lankham so that's directly where I headed on return to Pakse.

Usually I speak Lao to people working in hotels, my 200 word vocabulary is easier than the usual 20 words of English spoken at the reception desk. At the Lankham I switched to English after the first sentence. The owner's son and his wife manage the hotel and both are very fluent English speakers.



Owner and grandson

The owners of the Lankham are an ethnic Vietnamese family. I say ethnic because they are 100% Lao by nationality. They all speak Lao when talking amongst themselves, even grandma. The family is educated, one son received advanced degrees in China, the other in America, both by scholarship.

The hotel is a smoothly functioning business as it needs to be with so many working there. The lobby is always attended and has many people checking in and out, getting left luggage, renting motorcycles, using the net, or booking tickets, all the time. The room I rented was cheaper than the competition, and though small, was clean, with AC, TV, fridge, and it all worked. A heck of a lot of Thai and Chinese stay there, good value. I think the rooms on the second floor are better and higher priced. I don't remember what I paid, not too much. There are two halls with rooms both sides and 3 upper floors, maybe 60 rooms or more. Out front is an espresso cart with a blender for smoothies too.


Ashtray Lankham

I was forthcoming about what I intended to use the bike for, and daughter in law suggested I didn't need a large bike but one of the made in Thailand Suzuki 125s might be plenty of power for the slow roads. Not as expensive as the dirt bike, but a lot more solid than the Kaolaos. Good call. Unstated, but in my mind, parts and repairs are a lot easier too. Try getting a large unusual bike worked on in a small village, might not have the right sized tires. The bike I was shown was shiny new looking, I checked the lights and brakes then hopped on to take it around the block, odometer read 450km, the thing was brand spanking new. I left it at the attached mechanics shop around back for the night and they changed the oil and adjusted up the brakes a smidgen.


Street in front of Lankham

But good rooms, great service, informed conversation, and reputable rental is not what really impressed me, it was the foe. In Vietnamese spelled "pho" and in all languages pronounced like the fur of the dog that bit you but without the R. Maybe more resembling the Fur of Fur Elise the famous bagatelle by Beethoven. Like Fur Elise good foe is understated excellence when done right.




Not the usual piano and not understated excellence but I liked it, in the style of Jimi Hendrix.

I'm not sure how foe is made in Vietnam where it comes from but in Laos the broth is light but extremely flavorful. Very little color to the soup but packed full of tastes that combine and compliment each other and are hard to pin down. At the Lankham in the early morning I saw them bringing the ribs of two whole cows fresh from the butcher to make the broth. Over twenty people are employed in the preparation, cooking, and serving of the foe. Everyone has their special job from preparing the ribs by trimming off the bits they don't want to cutting vegetables, setting and clearing tables and so on.

What's in the soup besides cow bones? I don't know. Often foe tastes of cinnamon or anise, and probably they were in the water at the Lankham, I don't know, but in no way did I taste them. Maybe they don't use them, I don't know, same with salt and bang nua. All of the flavors are subtle enough that they can't be pinned down. When the broth pours it shines, clear it is, thin it's not.


Second best thing in the world, foe at the Lankham



I only saw one person cooking the noodles, I have to assume it was the woman in charge of the business. The foe restaurant is operated by the sister of the owner. Of course the thin sen foe (foe noodles) are just barely cooked enough. Thin sliced beef and green onions minced are added so that they are barely cooked and they cool the soup down enough so that when it arrives it is hot, but not scalding, you can eat it right away.

On the side and complimentary is a large glass of unsweetened weak iced tea in a bottomless glass. Also you get a bowl of just barely cooked, still slightly stiff, boiled cabbage chunks and green beans without any added flavoring. More of the same uncooked in a bowl in front of you, and a tin with a lid and chunks of lime to squeeze. Lettuce leaves, cilantro, basil, sprouts, hot peppers, everything you could use with foe.

I squeeze a couple slices of lime and dig in, after half a bowl I devour all the boiled cabbage and half the beans. The boiled veggies are great, clean the pallet, tasty, a break from the constant chomping on lettuce, mint, and cilantro that usually accompanies me eating of foe.

The meal isn't cheap. Maybe twenty thousand kip or so. Between eight and nine there's a big office crowd from all the government offices and banks. Tables are big, they can seat eight or ten people, and seating is communal, just pull up a chair. Mid morning us tourists and a few business people wanting to talk away from the office. What better way to clinch the deal than over a great bowl of foe. Lunch crowd is over and done with by 1:30 and by mid-afternoon all the huge pots are scrubbed and dishes washed and stored awaiting the next dawn.

Haven't eaten foe at the Lankham Hotel? Well you haven't really been to Pakse yet.

Tad Fan / Sihom Sabai Guest House

A different view of Tad Fan, from the top of the falls. Click for a clear picture



I first noticed the sign for Siihom (pronounced "see home")Sabai on the way to Paxon, couldn't miss it, big billboard, "guest house Sihom Sabai 200m".

Later after renting a motorcycle in Paxon and poking around the area a little I stopped back in to take a look. I thought it ideal. Shady, house set back off the road, small restaurant out front with a big covered table for lounging. I asked about going for a walk and the owner's daughter volunteered that her husband and her brother could act as guides.




Hom, the owner of Sihom Sabai Guest House and many many rai of coffee plantation. Now tends his garden, bounces grand children on his knee, and drinks Lao coffee.



Siihom Sabai is named after the couple who own the guest house Ms Si and her husband Mr. Hom. Their daughter Boontom was the best English speaker there, but she also had a sister working at the Sabaidee 2 Guesthouse in Pakse which is the most popular backpacker Lonely Planet guest house, so I'm sure she too speaks great English. The rates were very low, maybe four of five dollars for a room in the guest house and two or three to "home stay" in their personal house. Don't hold me to the rates, things change, my memory fades.

I returned my motorcycle and came back with my bags early the next morning. All the towns and points between Pakse and Paxon are named after the mile marker, Siihom is at Ban Siisip (village kilometer 40).





Treking guide and his covey.

When I arrived at the guest house I was surprised to see eight or ten other foreigners there. Green Discovery and another company use Sihom Guest House as a place to sleep and a base to start walks into the surrounding countryside. One group was leaving to return to Pakse and another group was beginning their walk that morning. After many coffees and after the second group started walking I met my guides, Ad and Ham, Boontom's husband and the youngest son of Si and Hom.

Ham with coffee and knife in left hand.

Coffee

Eventually we crossed a creek where there was a small house, the owners had been fish farming using the dammed up creek as a water source, they also had these home made rat traps. I have to assume for catching the rat to eat. Inside the bamboo was a loop of wire and a small stick spring loaded to trip the bent bamboo and throttle the rat. I thought I knew all the different traps from when I was a kid but this was a new one on me.

Close up

Edge of Boloven Plateau

Above the house the hill became more rocky and we came to the edge of an escarpment. From our overlook we could look down into the Dong Hua Sao National Biodiversity Conservation Area. I walked in a couple of circles along the ledge until I found the scat from some kind of mid sized cat. I knew this was too good a place not to have a scent marker.

Tad Nguing from above

From our viewing point we walked back to the west heading steadily downhill, crossed the river and abruptly came up on Tad Nguing, a much better waterfall for swimming than Tad Fan.

Tad Nguing from below

Tad Fan Lodge

Later yet we crossed the top of Tad Fan as in the photo at the beginning of this blog post. I bought both of my guides a soda or a coffee at the restaurant but we quickly left. Tad Fan attempts to be a little bit more than is called for. Too much suupap and too little sabai.

Tad Fan

Gate to my overgrown hectare behind bike.

We walked back on the access road to Tad Fan Resort and passed the entrance to a hectare I own there. It's at the Y in the road, feel free to pick the wild coffee or tea. We took a shortcut back so that we didn't have to go all the way out to the road.

Si and Hom of Sihom Sabai

Burma - Hot History Lesson

I saw this video clip over on a blog called friscodude. The blog itself is worth a look. Written by a travel writer, Carl Parkes, based in Thailand, it is Asian themed but not necessarily restricted to travel. The writing is good and there's often new material.

Craig Schuler's Photos

Self Portrait by Craig Schuler at the Chinese border Phongsali Province Laos. Abandoned Casino in background

Craig studied Thai language formally, and then taught himself Lao language. He gets on well with people and that's obvious from his photographs. People enjoy having him take their picture.

Craig's latest series called sitting on top of a million elephants is kind of a play on words. Laos is called the land of a million elephants and the province where Craig took his most recent series of pictures is the northernmost province in Laos extending by itself way up into the space between Vietnam and China. Not only are the photos from this northernmost province, they are also from the most northern district within that province. Truly Sitting On Top Of A Million Elephants

The name of the district is Nyat Ou, and the Province is Phongsali. I visited that district briefly while in Phongsali at Craig's recommendation. It was everything he had described and more. Ou Tai was remote and seemingly influenced very little yet by the rest of the world.

I'm not sure how many photos are in this set. Many more than any I've ever seen before from Craig. Usually he's very stingy with the photos. Perhaps he had many more "keepers" with this batch.If the links don't show about 100 or more black and whites of rural Laos, email Craig and demand he make the images permanently available for view.

Since I originaly posted this, things have changed. There now seem to be 12 photos all looking kind of like old colour prints, I think this is, as as called on his link to as "treated colour". Interesting to see them first as black and white, and now as faded colours. Some of the images I remember from a year ago as having vibrant but natural seeming colours. I'll have to watch and see what's next.

Update on the update. It seems as if Craig didn't get much response on the original series of black and whites, so he opted for the fall back photos. Craig promises to make the black and whites available again soon. Send an email to Craig by clicking here and going to the portion of his web site that says "contact" tell him to bring back the black and whites

He has had two other sets of color photos on the same web site. I liked both of the other sets, they were tremendous in their own right, but these photos seem to build on his earlier work and go beyond them. The black and white adds to the feeling of timelessness. If you didn't know already when they were taken you might think they are from ten, twenty, fifty or more years ago.

For My Feet

Often I hear people discussing what’s the best thing to wear to go for a walk, specifically “trekking” in South East Asia.



Above my old hiking boots. My first pair I spent a two week pay check to buy, I think they were about $65 in 1974. Eventually I trashed them in the salt water on the back deck an anchor boat in the Gulf of Mexico. An ignominious end for a hand made boot by a master craftsman. This pair I bought later in my mid thirties when I had plenty of money to pay the then price tag of $250. They are called Limmers. A typical yearly production run was a thousand pair. They were made around a wooden last of your foot. Limmer Boots of Intervale NH


A common theme of footwear discussions is why bother carrying boots all the way to Asia, when a pair of sandals might do as well or better. I used to be of the same mind but of late have changed my tune. There are caveats, it all depends on where you are going and how far.

The first guest house I stayed at in Chang Mai was developed around the trekking business. The guides taught me to speak some Thai and explained many seemingly inexplicable parts of Thai culture. When I came back to Thailand to work at first for half a year and later on a one way ticket I always stayed at that guest house when in town, my home away from home.

Eventually one of my friends convinced me to go on a trek. It was the typical two night/three day /elephant ride/rafting thing. Being as I was a non paying guest I missed out on the rafting / elephant walk. I also was extremely sick due to being incautious when peeling the cover off some rambutans. The walking was so easy I was able to keep up without strain, even being sick. Leisurely wanders with convenient rests in closely spaced villages I considered to be the norm.

Laos was different...



Above I’m doing the powder mag traverse at an LZ in southern Idaho. Notice the skid marks from my feet where I’d edged on the bolts during previous post-work workouts. I was an obsessed climber.

During the 80s I did a kind of job that required lots of walking in the mountains of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana. Half of our pay was by the mile so we covered a lot of ground very quickly often walking hundreds and hundreds of miles, with weight, over rough terrain. On my feet I’m wearing a lightweight pair of European hiking boots. I used to buy discounted pairs in Boulder or Jackson Wyoming. Pivettas, Fabianos, Lowas, and Galibiers. Returns, last years models, any brand, cheap and high quality were all I cared about. I found it was less expensive to buy them for fifty or a hundred dollars on sale and throw them away when they were worn out rather than resole. I also liked the light weight and close cut.




Many of my friends preferred Galibier Super Guides above. They were heavy and didn’t bend much but they could be resoled, and were indestructible. Good for kick stepping in the mornings when the snow was still frozen.


Thinking that walks in Laos would be similar to those in Thailand I took the footwear above on most of my treks. On my very first excursion I took Crocs, a rubber type clog thing. After the second day I switched to the sneakers that I’d carried as backup. Subsequently I wore the sneakers exclusively and the flip flops once I’d reached the villages.

Most of my walks were long drawn out affairs, often going as fast as possible just to make the next village by night. The relocation of many of the villages has caused trails to become obscure and sometimes even disappear. In the wetter seasons there’s lots of slippery mud. In a word footing is usually bad and often worse than that. I did go on one standard commercial trek rated fairly hard but in reality much easier than the more unravelled walks. I think a pair of Tevas or similar would have worked fine. Of course from a stylistic perspective I’d rather go barefoot.

If I ever make it back I swear I’m going to take a good pair of boots with me. Boot technology has changed.


A couple of years ago a neighbour who often works as a hunting guide urged me to hurry on down to Walmart and buy some Herman Survivors as they were on sale. I remember Survivors from when I used to hike as a young teen. High topped leather and heavy. Somewhere along the way the brand got sold and they are now made of cordura, gortex and thinsulate. They are made in China as are almost all boots.


I bought three different styles at that sale, all for around twenty five dollars marked down from fifty or sixty. They were extremely light, water proof in a way my old leather boots could only dream of, and the support was in all the right places without being stiff. A far superior boot for what now amounts to a fraction of an hour of my labour. I was sold.

They are “hunting” boots. Usually having some sort of fashionable camouflage on them somewhere just so you get the idea. They are also high tops and often with some insulation because hunters are often out in the cold. For some reason the big box sporting goods stores clear out their inventory with the seasons. I think it’s cheaper to sell at a steep reduction than to inventory it and sell it to some discounter.


This year I kept my eyes open and bought better brands at a lot larger markdown. My average price was $32, average new prices were $130. Thank you China and the Dominican Republic, just wish we still employed people in our own shoe factories.

Update, I should mention in all honesty that I've had problems with my "buy cheap stuff and just wear it" philosophy. I took two of my unused pair of shoes to Laos and had some uh. . . difficulties. Probably a good idea to take some long walks with any pair of shoes before bringing them with you on the airplane.

Foe

Foe

Pronounced Fuhhh. Spelled in Vietnamese as pho, it’s pronounced the same. Whatever you call it, I call it liquid heaven.
When the French brought the Vietnamese to Laos to be their bureaucrats, the Vietnamese brought foe. I’m very appreciative as I like it best of all the things they brought, better than the fresh baguette, better than liver pate, better than the dark coffee in drinking glasses, better even than the pretty Vietnamese girls.
I’ve never been to Vietnam, so I can’t compare. Lao foe is above all fresh tasting, similar to the rest of the food. In Thailand they have a noodle soup called Quway Tyow. Quway Tuow is dead and heavy. Foe is alive.
The basis for foe is above all the good soup stock. When we butchered up an elk back home one of the best parts was that we now had a large supply of good quality bones. We can’t buy good bones in the super market where we live. Normally they are sold for dogs and are old, or with ribs and too meaty. Good bones make a very flavourful but light soup stock. Good foe needs to be transparent and shiny.

Tdooee Foe Jao Gow

This restaurant is called Tdooee Foe Jao Gow and it’s in Dalat Kuwa Din. Dalat Kuwa Din is the wet market next to the bus station in downtown Vientiane. To find this foe restaurant walk all the way to the back of the market to where there is car parking. Not behind the market next to the klong where there is also parking, but rather the car parking that is in the market. Along the south side of the parking lot are a row of dry goods stores, follow that row of stores east past the edge of the parking area and you are there. For reference the big road out by the front of the market is south, the bus station is west. You could print the photo here and take it with you.
We found (meaning my wife found it, I use we in the liberal sense) this market three years ago and it’s still there today, maybe it will be around for a while. The name would lead you to believe so. Tdooee is simply a name like Joe or Mike, foe is the soup, joa gow means the old one, or the old place.
I asked what was in the stock and the daughter of the owner said yes to beef bones, salt, and bang nua, but when I asked what else she just smiled. I tasted a tiny hint of cinnamon, maybe it was star anise, whatever it was it’s not there to be tasted, only in the background. They were light on both the salt and the bang nua. Probably they figured if someone wanted it they could add, it’s on the table, or maybe they figure the sauce is rich enough to stand on it’s own.
The greens on the side were the classic three, mint, basil, and fresh leaves of lettuce. As soon as I would eat some lettuce more would appear. There is another plate with hot peppers and slices of lime on it. I always squeeze in a couple slices of lime, just the kind of guy I am. I always skip all hot stuff in soups, My cilia don’t work and hot stuff goes down the wrong pipe. No cilia from doing hits on short hot pipes for too many years, burnt em.

Daughter of Tdooee

Besides the broth and greens this place does the noodles to a T. At home I always over cook them and they come out droopy. The other sin is to under cook them, and that’s worse. At this place they are cooked only, just barely enough. They have to remain perky even sitting in the hot foe water.
The meat is the least important part for me. Of course if they cut corners they would lose customers, so they do it right. They use good fresh beef, sliced paper thin and placed in the bowl just after the broth and noodles. The heat of the water is the only cooking it gets. When they throw in the meat balls and sausage the temp comes down cool enough so you can dish in right away.
The broth is hot, piping hot. I typically drink the water before eating the noodles. Serves two purposes, one it’s the part I like best, and two, when I eat the noodles they aren’t as wet, and don’t splash all over. The Loa call this draining the pond. The expression comes from the way they drain the water out of the rice field then catch all the fish left stranded. When the girls at the restaurant saw that I had drained the pond they brought me another bowl of just broth, I squeezed in a couple more limes and dug on in, almost couldn’t walk away.

Zuela

OK here we go, my first blatant plug of a business.

A few years ago while in Muang Sing I met a guy Vong who worked at the bank. His English was very good and it turned out I had rented a motorcycle from his business over in Luang Namtha.
That night he took me to a guest house opening party. The guest house was owned by a local oficial. While there, through him as a translator, someone asked my why bother coming to Muang Sing or even Laos it being such a rural out of the way place. I replied (speaking in my limited Lao) how the Lao food was so good, I waved my hand at the view we could all see out the front of the restaurant, the sun was setting over fields of rice all the way to the mountains, and said how beautiful the countryside was, and I mentioned the easy going manner of the Lao people. Actually the normal type of thing you say to anyone when they ask about their own country. The lao lao had already been flowing, and they loved my praise of Loas, hard to go wrong praising a country to it's inhabitants.

When I went back to Luang Namtha this year with photos of Vong and Sai’s young daughter he was standing in front of his brand new guest house. Good connections to be had at the bank? I stayed there that night and a few more nights when I went back up to Luang Namtha province.

Here are the details as of this writing.
All rooms are $6 except the two rooms available out by the kitchen that have a shared bath and are $2. All rooms have hot water but as of now no AC. They are large, clean, have a place to hang clothes, wooden furniture, a painting, ceiling fan etc, There is a lot of wood used in the construction. Most of the walls are brick painted with some kind of sealant to make them shiny and clean, similar to the outside of the guest house.
The restaurant has an extensive menu kind of in the style of large western orientated hotels in Vientiane. (What that means is that if you are expecting something to be like back home fugetaboutit. But it will be very palatable by western standards, look back at my post about Yam Moon Sen three posts ago. Made not very hot, and not too spicy just for you) If you are looking for regular Lao food order from that portion of the menu. Coffee comes in coffee mugs and the restaurant area is a quiet pleasant place to while away time reading or writing post cards.
The entire guest house itself is fairly quiet being set back off the street down as small short alley. The way to find it other than asking or looking for the small sign is to look for the tallest thing on “the street”. That’s the brand new four story tall guest house that was being built by their neighbours next door. Highest building I saw in Luang Namtha.
When I urged Sai, that’s Vong’s wife, to up the rates so to make them comparable to similar rooms in the area she replied that she was more interested in having a full house every night than making tons off one room. They do seem to fill often. Mostly word of mouth but also the mini bus drivers like to take the guided tourists there. The standards meet the requirements of the guided tours and they save ten or fifteen bucks. There is no pressure to eat in the restaurant, rent a motorcycle, change money, or use any of the other services they offer. They are happy that you stay with them.
The hotel is run by Sai, the motorcycle rental by her mom, bikes are serviced by Vong’s brothers, and there are many brothers and sisters working throughout.
The name Zuela comes from Vong and Sai’s little girl who is now of an age to pretend to have tea parties with her friends and is cute as a button.