Amazing waterfalls

Day 51 (20/05/08): Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang is a very pretty town, full of history and culture, and more temples than you can shake a big Buddhist stick at. One of the things the town is famous for is the Kuang Si waterfalls, and so after a breakfast with Garth, Gemma & Johnny, the four of us grabbed a tuk-tuk for the hour journey out the waterfalls. Its only 29km to the waterfall, but it is very steep, and as such the underpowered tuk-tuks take an hour to get there.

Before getting to the waterfalls, you walk through a short forest path, in which you go past the Bear Conservation project. Here are a number of Asiatic black bears that have been rescued from poachers. The bears were all playing in their enclosures, and climbing trees, and were pretty cool to see. There is also a rescued tiger, however it wasn't out for viewing that day. Walking a bit further we came to the waterfalls themselves. The waterfalls are incredibly beautiful. It is actually a series of small waterfalls that cascade over multiple levels down the side the hill into beautiful aquamarine pools. We followed them up, marvelling as each pool seemed more beautiful and picturesque than the previous one. After a short while we got to the main fall, which was pretty high and very pretty. Here we met Lucy and Lou & Charlie, three other Gibboners who had taken the bus instead of the slow boat.

You are allowed to swim in the pools at the bottom of the hill, and so after working up some sweat walking to the top of the waterfall, we were all eager for a swim. There is a small waterfall here, about 3m high which you can jump off, as well as a tree of similar height overhanging the pool. We all had a great time jumping off the waterfall and tree into the beautiful water. At one stage a large contingent of young orange clad monks appeared and walked to the top of the waterfall. Some started rolling up their robes, and we were all hoping they would jump, but alas a senior monk came along and disavowed them of the idea.

The tuk-tuk ride back was considerably quicker, an advantage of going downhill. Later in the evening I met Lou and Charlie, and we climbed over 200 steps up the large hill in the middle of Luang Prabang to watch the sunset. Unfortunately the clouds were in the way, but it was still a fantastic view watching over the town as all the lights came on for the night, and as is typical for Laos, there were fantastic mountains and cliffs in the background. Luang Prabang has a large number of Buddhist temples, which at night are lit up by spotlights, and so standing on top of a giant hill in the center of the town, you could see all the illuminated Buddhist Stupas dotted around the place.

Lou and Charlie hadn't made it to the bowling alley the previous night, and were quite keen to go, and so for the second night in a row I found myself at the bowling alley after dinner. Garth joined us, and the four of us had a couple good games. I was really bad in the first game, coming dead last and scoring a paltry 35. But then I got my eye in, and easily won the second game with a score of 115. Overall another fun night with the 'Gibbon Crew'.