Roi i Ety :)

Cambodia.......

Yyyyyyy.y....... does it looks like Cambodia??? HHHmmmmm........ Not exactly.

There was a problem. After showing up on border, Laotian border guards, very friendly guys told me that I might have a problem on Cambodian side and I should go and ask.

I was there very early and still waiting for opening the border. Finally someone showed up and we started the conversation. Unfortunately the Cambodian side was not that pleasant for me. Guy didn't want my motorbike to enter Cambodia without special permission which I could get only in Phnom Penh(capital), no black money, no talking, nothing. So idea of leaving a bike on the border, taking some local transport to capital and coming back in three days, if everything goes well wasn't that interesting for me, so I had to find another solution.

Bad for me. Actually not, bad for them. My tourist dollars are going to different country, not there. 

I really wanted to enter and see Angkor and famous Cambodian traffic, but maybe next time then.

Very pissed off about all situation I turned around, crossing Pakse into Thailand again where most eastern parts of Isan were still not visited. 

After morning stress and many km in the saddle, I decided to stay over night in Ubon Ratchathani in nice hotel, relax and think what to do next.

Golden temple in Ubon ;)

Very Gold.......

And even more gold.........

Ubon is famous for its wax sculpture festival - which I have missed for 1 - 3 weeks. Here I jumped on one of sculptures.

In the inside of the side temples.

Basically, since I entered Laos I was looking for new set of proper tires for my bike. I couldn't get them even in Ubon, which is capital of province, but I got it in Roi Et. As you can see guys really took it seriously and within 40 minutes I had a set of new Michelins was on. Great cooperation and a lot of fun as well :D

Roi Et is a very famous city within polish travelers, as it is inhabited by lovely polish couple which decided to drop "normal" way of living in Poland. They lived in India for some time, now in Thailand where they have great successes in teaching industry :D

Apart of that Roi Et is fairly medium-size Thai city, rather quiet, not many tourist as it is deep in Isan.

As I couldn't get to Angkor Wat, I started to hunt Angkor time temples and this particular one was under water........

You should watch out on snakes which can be under water.......

Here only some foundations left..........

Hello Rajscy ! It was a long time since I spoke live in polish language and they have so many stories to say and so many information about Thai way of living..........

This is a grave of some famous guy.........

One of few catholic churches around and this particular one was honored for a best looking catholic church in Asia few years ago.

Here is description ;)

That is more polish..........

Another gold temple. Pretty famous in east Isan - Nakhon Phanom.

Flowers as gift together with prayer.

You can make amazing things from banana leaf

Night prayer

Thailand is the country of temples. Here is another famous and important because of something.....

On the way I visited another aquarium. This one visited and donated by King. In this place I saw first picture showing king on wheel chair(he is really old). That is odd, as usually you find 30 - 40 years old pictures of king around Thailand. He needs to look smart, strong, etc.....

I also found Ho Chi Minh's house, where he lived for almost 2 years.

It was small open museum, with pictures, notes and some details.

Some of the trees were planted by Ho Chi Minh, garden was very nice.
Not a single person around, no security, no tourists. Just me and this place. Isn't that amazing?

As I said in the beginning of Thailand story, Thai people are amazing when it comes to create tourist attractions. Here are some dinosaur foot marks.......

And even dinosaur's could be found at the place.....

On the side of this road you can find this place, but apart of that isn't that amazing?
Trees covering constantly for few km, giving shade and just green.........
Another aspect of driving in Isan. You don't hit many turn or mountains......

Coffee and waterfalls

Bolaven Platue is elevated region in southern Laos. It is famous for coffee plantations - which are very popular between Thai tourists, waterfalls and great nature. Most of the tourist finish their route in the quite big city Pakse. If you travel further, basically is difficult to hit any white face around. 

The capital of province is Attapeu, very quiet on the way to Vietnamese border. There is big market with Chinese products, few small hotels, people afraid of white face and poor restaurants. I was hoping to make a loop around area, but roads south of Attapeu are terrible, so I came back almost the same way traveling more south.

Well, let's see how the Bolaven Platue looks like. It is amazing to see the landscape it is. Just at one moment the place rise approx. 1000 m about the ground level and thanks to that you get that many waterfalls around.  

I have seen few waterfalls in Thailand, smaller or bigger ones, but they didn't have much water due to dry season

Hello !! Traveler !

The most popular waterfalls are actually "on the ground" of some hotels of resorts and in order to see then you need to pay. Some hotels are very nice placed and as well at pretty good standards, with overview on the waterfall. Still worth it, so pay few thousands kips and enjoy :)

A lot of water. That means you can get wet......

Filmik z wodospadu. Moze zadziala :)

Laotian traveler :D

There as well smaller waterfalls. Those are for free :P

Most of the waterfalls are having access from the bottom. Here standing at the top of one.
A bit higher, there was a Buddhism temple.

A paper for each day of the month. Or for something else. No one was there and I couldn't ask....

Flower :)

Coffee. The real one :)

This particular coffee plantation, makes money mainly on tourists, renting rooms, serving nice cakes. Very nice and clean place, with some artificial waterfalls, gardens visited by many important and well know people.

A waterfall on Mekong. Not that high, but pretty wide.

Some local religion monuments. There were quite a few around, like a park and alleys between them.

Even one local guy was around to take me a picture :D

Plateau from the side. Impressive. Off course all around rice paddies.

Some local government office. Small......... Please tell me that Laos is such a poor country. Poor only for normal people. If you are in the politics - that's a different story......

Red soil everywhere. Super slippery if it get;s wet......

If you don't have a place to park. Find a banana plantation, proper tree and even rain is not a problem :D

If you haven't seen. Banana flower and bananas over :D

As for most of my time in Laos. It was raining almost every day.........

Sometimes roads are not exactly as you wish them to be.........

Tad Lo. I think this is most popular waterfall, but for me I got to some which were far better and wild.

After few days on Plateau, I went further south to famous laid back destination at Mekong called Si Phan Don - Four Thousands Islands. This was a place to relax a bit more, rest before a new part of my journey into Cambodia.

At first you need to get there by ferry. Bridge is being built and any time soon you will get there directly.

I have heard many stories how great place is and almost everyone suggested to go there. In reality wasn't exactly anything special. One thing was for sure good, the hotels. You can get really nice, fairly new hotel for good value(still far more expensive then Thailand) with two buses of Thai tourists partying hard all weekend gratis. I got my self a room in smaller hotel(I was the only guest) with a view on Mekong river(damn, it is a big river.......) and bike parked in the living room of the hotel owner.

Inside of the temple somewhere on the island.

You can travel on boat between islands, even to Cambodia for some short time and make a loop around island. There few small temples and rice paddies. Paddies everywhere.

Isn't that green beautiful?

Hola !! Farang !!!

In the end I like the place for chilling out. Very nice food in restaurants, cold beer with ice, wifi was working well and simply doing nothing for some days is all what you want.

On the way back to mainland in early morning I didn't catch main big ferry. Instead 3 long tail boats connected, small engine and woala - I'm on the other side :D

Just before Cambodia border you can visit Pha Pheng Falls. Biggest waterfall in southeast Asia. They are not pretty, high or even nature around is not special as everything is surrounded by food stalls, small theme park and hotels. Very popular place, but I was there very early in the morning, so I even didn't pay the entrance. Quick picture with huge, huge, huge amount of water passing(it is fall on Mekong) - very noisy as well and I left to Cambodia :)