July 12th, 2012
What a day! July 12th
So our first full day here in Luang Prabang started slow….we got up at 8am….and I did have my coffee on the balcony (as I am sure everyone has been wondering). Played some words….life is good!
We made it over to breakfast by around 9:30am. The french influence here is evident in the breakfast. Did I mention that yesterday? Maybe I didn’t…this town/area used to be a French colony or something like that. I will have to look that up again to be accurate. It is evident in the architecture big time. It doesn’t look Asian here really at all. Have to put up some street shots to show you.
Anyway breakfast was fruit (yummy mango, pineapple and banana) and sliced baguette and a crepe. It was good, but just “frenchy” : )
So we bug and sun screened up (it was already a million degrees by 10:30am and full on sun)! And headed out for a walk about. We saw a very colourful friend on a menu….not at our hotel ; )
Oops…back track a little! This is the view from our breakfast table!
You know it’s hot when the locals are hot…
I think I need a plant like this back home….maybe the deer wouldn’t eat it!
We stopped and watched 4 foreigners playing a game (that seems similar to bocci ball) with some locals. These 4 guys were on the same plane as us….not the Canadians….we think Chilean. Anyway….it was quite animated and the locals ended up winning (shock surprise). And the tourists forked over some money ; ) so either pay to play or a small wager was taking place!
Right after we wandered away from the game…a tuk tuk driver approaches (prolly the 53rd one since we got here yesterday) and wants to know if we want to go to the caves or the big big waterfall. We actually do want to do both these things….so we actually have the conversation with him. He wants 200,000 kip ($28usd) to drive us there and back and he will make a bunch of stops along the way so we can see a working rice field, vegetable gardening, Hmong village, some scenic stops etc. the drive is about one hour each way…seems reasonable enough. So off we go….with one quick stop at a gas station (and I grabbed a mystery can–it had coffee beans on the can so how “weird” could it be) turned out to be iced coffee…which I love!
I got a few shots of the countryside….
That last one is the tuk tuk mafia of Luang Prabang I think….our driver had to stop at 2 different little huts on the side of the road and have them “sign” in his book and he even paid some money at the first one….so we don’t really know what this is all about yet…but we might figure it out…
There is a bear preservation camp up at the waterfalls. So we got to see this little cutie eating some pineapple for lunch…Apparently bear poaching is a big problem here…so they are working to improve life for as many bears as they can and educate the people about bear safety etc.
So the Kuang Si falls were amazing! Troy has all those fabulous photos….
As we are inclined to do….we often decide to undertake some pretty serious hiking when we are presented with the opportunity…so once again we see a sign directing us to the top of the waterfall and/or mountain or whatever it happens to be and this time was no different…somehow we forget (or maybe we just never learn)…but we always like to get the best experience we can….so we always go for it!
There is never any indication of distance or elevation or difficulty or anything really….so off we go! Well let me just say….this had to be top 2 challenging hikes we have done while vacationing in SE Asia. Not sure of the details yet as Troy has to get the data off his gps tracker thing….but it was a long way up and pretty much straight up. No steps, rails or assistance of any kind! There was switch back after switch back and the switch backs were even straight up (if that is possible). The further we went up…the more committed we were and did not want to turn back…bcz all you think is “we must surely be almost there!!”. Here is a picture….not sure how well this captured it. But it just went on and on and on…
We get to top finally and there are 2 girls bare foot with their flip flops (yeah right!!) in their hands that answered our question of “was it worth it?” with a resounding “NO!”… But we decided to form our own opinion. Pretty sure we both agreed it WAS worth it–even though definitely not for the faint of heart!!
It was super cool…we were at the top of the world or at the very least the very tippy top of these gorgeous waterfalls…right where they start. I have not had that experience before…so definitely worth it!!
But what goes up must come down….and the trip up paled in comparison to the trip down….now we know this from previous hikes up to waterfalls….and we certainly were keeping it in mind the WHOLE way up….but we didn’t really have a choice did we? Anyway we survived and it was fun!!
So we enjoyed wandering around the market at the bottom of the waterfall after we came down and we have some banana chips and Laos made potato chips and some water for a snack….pretty good stuff! Well earned.
We did make some stops on the way back to town to see some locals working in the fields..Our driver spoke pretty good English so he was able to tell us lots of things!
We got back a little after 5pm so we got great value for our 200,000 kip : )
So we relax for a bit (1 hour) bcz the plan is to go up to the temple at the top of a “hill” right in the center of town to watch the sunset. It is called Mount Phousi. So you can imagine now what that means….more climbing!! But at least these are stairs…right? It was gorgeous up there….here is what we saw : )
You get an idea of how high up we were…it was no small “hill”, even though they call it that.
So after the sun sets….we now have to go down the “hill”…I am going to see if I can look up how many steps it was….cuz it was a lot….and remember it is stinking hot here…we were soaked in sweat (sorry Jackie) but “true story”!!
We had a fabulous Indian meal tonight….there was a place that was recommended to us! And boy were they right…it was awesome! When we got back to the hotel, the desk guy asked us if we had eaten dinner….and we said “yes” and then he asked “where?” and we told him…he laughed….he said “you come to Laos for Indian food?”
Well he probably has a point….
Good night all!
