After four months in amazing Bangkok, I moved closer to rice fields and jungle, to Xepon, a provincial Laotian town that, probably, nobody has heard of except those who live nearby. Thanks to Google Maps, I found this place with affordable hotels, a beautiful countryside, and a way of life that has remained in the past for many parts of the world.

Xepon (Sepon), Laos on Google.Maps

And when I need to get another stamp in my passport, the Lao-Vietnamese border isn't far from here. I'm going to stay in this area for a month or two. Let's see how it will go.

Research Stage

When I was researching online, it was hard to find anything about Xepon district. Look at this, there are only 3 street view panoramas in the area on Google.Maps:

3 blue circles only, you see...

But there are reviews for some objects on the map left by Laotians, Vietnamese, and most adventurous travelers; for example, reviews for hotels. These bits of knowledge helped me a lot.

And this is nearby Banghiang River in the satellite:

Look at these ragged white banks of the river - it means there are rocks there! Tempting, doesn't it?

Laotian Wikipedia was the only source that explained what travel destinations can be found in Xepon. It mentioned a waterfall 7 kilometers away from Xepon. That was enough for me since I only wanted a formal occasion to have a walk in the countryside for taking images of nature and rural Laotians.

Less than 5 USD for a large single room? No way! 😀

The decision was made.

An overnight bus from Bangkok to Mukdakhan, crossing the Lao-Thai border, taking a bus from Savannaket to Xepon, 24h of traveling. On May 25, I was in Xepon.

The very next day, I headed to the waterfall and got caught by a heavy downpour. Happily, I found an abandoned building where I was hiding for 1.5 hours 😁

The Road

That's where I was stopped by rain when tried to visit the waterfall last time:

This is Namkok River flows into Banghiang River. That larger mountain in the background is part of Dong Phou Vieng National Bio-Diversity Conservation Area where they have everything including gibbons, pangolins, wild elephants... And even tigers as wiki states...

The whole way from Xepon to the waterfall takes around 1 hour and 20 minutes. It is a gravel road that runs through hills past several farms.

There are literally a few houses along the way which is great since there are not many dogs there.

I didn't encounter angry dogs there although some of them helloed me with barking from the yards. Anyway, on my way back, I had a bamboo stick for more peace of mind. 🙂

I saw only 3-4 motorbikes on the way to waterfall, and no one car. I was surprised since it was on Sunday, and I expected some Xepon townspeople would go to the waterfall...

The area of farms and cottages ends after about 20 minutes of walking. On the left and right, there are forested area along the road after that.

Closer to the waterfall, I noticed huts:

And, yes, it was clear that downpour is unavoidable - look at the sky!

Several Minutes of Amazing Light

The last sun rays were nicely lighting the scenery while remote hills were already absorbed by the thick shade of rainy clouds. I was inspired by the light, and rushing to take images at the river where I hoped to find a waterfall.

At that very moment, the Lao fishermen noticed a foreigner with a camera jump out of the bushes and start taking pictures of them. 🤠

I loved this scene:

Like a runner at the start, the fisherman froze before a decisive throw.

Hell, why isn't there an international sport that reflects this activity? Why is shot throwing at the Olympics, but there is no net throwing there?

What grace!

Nothing worse than gymnastics, look at how the net magnificently unfolded in the flight!

6 Minutes Later

And then it started to downpour.

The very last image I took having lifted a poncho's edge:

Soon, I was running to a shepherd's hut since the poncho was seriously leaking and I was worried about safety of my camera.

A goat, which was hiding under the roof of this structure, jumped into the bushes.

I Still Didn't See the Waterfall

The rain lasted half an hour or so and, soon, the sky cleared up giving me another chance to find the waterfall.

I descended another steep path densely surrounded by bamboo thickets

with all those raindrops pouring at me from the foliage when I wasn't careful.

Amazing rapids but no waterfall... And where are fishermen?..

It was 4:40 pm, the time of great light.

I was happy, and I felt focused, as a hawk. I wanted to do a lot, and I still had to walk back for an hour and a half at dusk.

Third Path was Right Path

Another path led me to the stone valley of Banghiang River.

There, I found waterfall,

there, I found fishermen.

But they ended fishing and was relaxing in the evening sunlight.

Since I had no chance for candid photography I asked (with gestures) everybody if I could photograph them. Of course, nobody refused.

I asked the man if I could take images of his family, and he, smiling, nodded. His wife was glad too but she left the frame in a humble way. I also took several images of their little boy standing by the river. He posed me with the neutral facial expression, photos weren't that interesting.

But when I was leaving, I couldn't help taking one more couple of photos of the kid. And at this moment, he looked with this expression at his parents. I think he was surprised and flattered that I considered him a great model. He felt like a star, and the joy of such popularity burst out of him. He shared his joy with his parents by looking at them. His parents rejoiced either. Because a person from a distant land also recognized their youngest kid adorable.

This whole walk, waterfall, people, everything was adorable but I had to start returning to the hotel in Xepon. The night was coming, and I had only a few sips of water left in my bottle.

It cannot be said that the walk was long - five hours. But it was very active 5 hours. I walked quickly to the waterfall, realizing that if, I plod along, the 7-km road through the hills would turn into 2+ hours. Then, I was in a hurry because of the rain. Then, I could not find the waterfall, went down and up steep paths, jumped over boulders, jumped a lot!

But this weariness was happy.

More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.

I took all the images in the post with a Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G and a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on May 28, 2023 in Xepon (Sepon) District, Savannakhet Province, Laos.