Mystic Mountain Coffee

Set deep in the Bolaven Plateau outside Paksong, Mystic Mountain Coffee occupies 16 hectares of plantation reached by dirt track and a 1945-pattern army jeep. Khamsone Souvannakhily, who bought his first hectare here in 1993, still runs the farm with his wife and daughter from their bamboo home. Two full-time workers and up to a hundred seasonal hands tend the coffee, depending on the harvest. The property produces organic Robusta, Arabica and Typica beans, sold to buyers in Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Guests sleep in the family homestay, one room set aside for visitors, the other for the household. It is a working farm, not a resort. Days run on jeep tours and treks: Tad Moun waterfall, the Bamboo waterfall, Laven and Suay weaving villages, and an old airstrip once used during the Vietnam War. Trekking routes climb Phou Katouk and cut through vegetable plots of lettuce, ginger and cabbage between plantation blocks. Meals are cooked by Khamsone's wife and served family-style, drawing on produce from the household garden and livestock kept on site. Coffee cupping happens on the farm, alongside demonstrations of roasting and drying. Tours are built around the harvest calendar and can run a single day or extend overnight. Water for washing comes from a tub filled by hand. All tours begin and end in Paksong.