The first few rows of the boat were equipped with car seats and as we arrived early enough, we got the comfort instead of the wooden chairs with a little pillow. The first part of the journey on the river we watched the scenery passing by and reading a couple of pages of our books.
The skilled captain drove the narrow boat safely through the little rapids on the way and always stayed in the deep parts of the river. The little islands and rock formations along the way kept us entertained and made us love this way of traveling very much.
Towards the end of our trip a heavy rain started and we had to stop, as the visibility got down to 5 meters and the rain sprayed all around us. We let down the covers along the boat to protect us from the rain. After 20 min heavy rain it got less and we could finish our trip.
When we arrived we took a Tuk-Tuk together with Chantal for the 300m. The driver tried to give us something for the money, as he drove 2 blocks the other direction before he turned around again and brought us to our requested address. As we didn't like the hostel we shopped a little bit around and got for the same money a really nice guest house right opposite of one of the many famous wats.
Every morning at 6am a procession of hundreds of orange dressed monks walk through the town with a big bowl under their arms, asking for food. Locals and tourists alike kneel next to the road with a bowl in their hands and give each passing monk a handful of food. Mostly sticky rice is passed out, but also bananas or cookies. We saw a sign saying not to give out street food as this would make the monks sick!?
It was interesting to watch, but it was frustrating with how little respect some of the tourists were in the faces of the monks with their cameras. You are not supposed to take any pictures of them, or at least be very discrete about it. I felt pretty sorry for the monks to be such an attraction. As we were a part of it, I shouldn't point my fingers!
We found a couple of other people and shared a kind of pick-up to get to the Kuang Si Waterfalls. It was a good hour drive to get there.
A small refuge for bears was at the entrance and we had a chance to get close to them (this time with a fence in between of us).
When we came to the waterfalls we saw a beautiful color and nice little terraces where the water trickled down from. An amazing environment with nice green colors and thick vegetation surrounded the area. We took a steep and slippery track to climb the very top of the falls.
The steps were very slippery too and I can only recommend not to look up into the sky whilst walking up or down to see if it is raining as it will probably will bring you pain, as some of the wooden planks are missing! I think I still have now a little memory of this day on my chin bone.
The view from the highest point was incredible over the jungle of the region.
On the way down we passed this beautiful bright colored (probably deadly poisonous snake). It seemed liked as if it was sleeping or just waiting for a stupid tourist to come close enough so it could strike and eat it afterwards.
The day before we went to the falls, a group of elderly women from Australia told us about a special track of the beaten track to reach a part of the waterfall where almost nobody else except of the locals go. So we were searching for the entrance to this track and almost gave up, as I was completely wrong with my understanding of the directions we got from the girls. If you come up the wooden stairs which is at the left hand side of the falls, and you reach the last steps, it's 23 steps (Chrisy: "I would say it was only 12 steps, but easy to spot when you know what to look for) before the top. There you need to turn right and walk through the little creek flowing your way. Go 10m in where you can leaven your belongings, as you need to climb through the cascades to get higher and then traverse to the main waterfall. The rock has a very good grip and you can easily do it as long as you take one step at a time! What you will see is out of this world. We had beautiful rock pools with the water falling in and the best of it all was that we were all by ourselves with Cicco and Chantal.
From all our travels, we think this was the MOST BEAUTIFUL WATERFALL we have seen!!!
The water was nice and warm and on a couple of trees were some rope swings from where some people did some crazy swings and jumps before entering the turquoise blue water.
The night market in town is very colorful with many Laos handicraft items on sale. A good place to do shopping and get a big selection of different items.
There are enough temples and wats for each day of the year. Sober ready for a lot of religious culture and wat seeing.
The entire town is in a very good condition and nicely made up. The French influence can be seen all over and also in their multiple bakeries and French fine dining restaurants.
We sticked to the 10.000 Kip all you can eat food street offers. For only a little more you could choose also to add a fresh delicious fish or chicken. So why spend a lot of money if you can get some of the cheapest and best food right here on the street?
We wanted to climb also Phu Si mountain but we were not willing to pay the 10.000 Kip they wanted. We heard if you wait long enough they close their cash point in the evening and you can go then for free. We didn't wait that long.
Here are some more dos and don'ts of Luang Prabang.
The next day we did not feel so great so we had a lazy morning at the Guest House and later Chrisy went out to get a sandwich and some sweet treats for lunch. As it was drizzling the whole morning anyway we did not feel like we were missing anything. A drumming concert from young monks made us come out of our room and as it stopped raining we decided to see some of the many wats. Wat Xieng Thong supposed to be the most beautiful and it cost 20,000 Kip to enter.
The evening we had dinner at the market with Chantal Und Chico.
More pictures from a town called Luang Prabang with a French flair.
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