8th January: Luang Prabang, Laos
After breakfast and a little snack hunt around the morning market, we jumped into a shared minivan for the very bumpy ride out to Kuang Si. I was a little apprehensive about heading out into the rainforest, but we couldn’t come to Luang Prabang and not take this trip. The driver insisted on us all paying him our entry fees to the area in advance, but this is what the hotel had told us to expect. The journey was just under an hour, past villages and over creaking single file bridges.
We decided to walk the opposite way to most people and headed straight up to the base of the main 60-metre-high waterfall. Wow! I hadn’t actually seen any photos in advance and would’ve struggled to believe they were real if I had. The cascade fell into turquoise pools and was surrounded by lush tropical foliage in a picture postcard scene. There were numerous rustic tables, so we sat here and ate our avocado salad baguettes chuckling at the scene in front of us.
We’d read mixed things on whether it was possible to go to the top of the falls, but a set of metal stairs appeared to head that way. Over 500 steps up later, we made it to the top! There was a makeshift platform, but the view wasn’t hugely impressive. Walking around a little further though, along a plank and through some mud the top part of the falls were visible from side on. This is when I also began to notice the spiders! Giant Golden Orb Weavers the size of my hand hung in webs between the trees. Fortunately, they were all still and at a distance where I didn’t feel too worried. I’m glad I didn’t let this fear stop me coming here.
Back down at the bottom, we followed the pools down over smaller falls. The water was crystal clear, and people swam in the pools with tiny fish nibbling at them. We also spotted a dark brown lizard and beautiful dark blue by butterflies.
On the way down, we saw the bear sanctuary where those rescued from illegal trading and bile farming now live. The Asiatic Black Bears, otherwise known as Moon Bears, were lounging around and eating their greens. The way they propped themselves up on tree stumps to chill reminded us of the pandas from Chengdu.
On the drive back, we saw two crashes. One between a van and a tuktuk and another between two mopeds. Hopefully everyone was OK. Road safety here definitely leaves a lot to be desired.
Before sunset, clouds formed in the west and we only caught glimpses of the orange light sinking below the horizon. As soon as it had, we were back to the night market. One noticeable thing is the number of children working on the stalls. They seem to be family affairs with everyone mucking in on rotation. The kids are cute, but it feels wrong for them to be spending their evenings in this way. There are others, as young as 5 or 6, trying to sell bananas on their own. After the lack of obvious poverty in China, it’s a shock to see it again and it’s upsetting. We went back to the same stall as yesterday for dinner and had a lovely chat with the family there. Today, we had the tofu lap salad which was so good yesterday, and another papaya salad. They were both so simple but fresh and bursting with flavour. We also shared a delicious tofu and cashew stir fry and finished up with sweet sticky coconut rice with mango. Laotian people sure know how to prepare tasty food!
