Getting to Luang Prabang was adventurous with the bus ride taking us through the mountains, with huge drops on either side of the road. I don't think our apprentice Vince enjoyed it too much but he's a bit of a wimp. We got there in the afternoon and luckily found a decent guesthouse to stay in, which was close enough to the action. Nothing much happened on the first day as me and Danny passed out early from hardcore travelling.
The plan for the next morning was to be ready for 10am and hire some motorbikes to go and see Pak Ou caves and the huge waterfall but Vince did his normal disappearing act to the internet cafe, so we had to change our plans and got a tuk tuk, because motorbikes was surprisingly expensive. We had Beth, Kate, Chris (who we met in Vang Vieng), Eddy, Steve, Shakira and Lianne on our little tour of Luang Prabang and when we finally got going, it seemed that we we were really pushing for time and for no particular reason, we visited Pak Ou caves first. We had to get a boat to get across the Mekong river to visit the caves and some of them decided to swim across. With my swimming skills, I decided it would be best for me to look after the bags and get on the boat. Dan, Chris and Vince made it across but were shattered, but Beth on the other hand, thought she could live up to the task, had to be rescued from a rock because the current was too strong - NUMPTY! There were 2 caves, which were Buddhist related so we didn't find them too interesting and ALL of us made our way back across on the boat.
We had to get 2 tuk tuks because there were 10 of us and the tuk tuk that I was in made it to the waterfalls within an hour of it closing but the tuk tuk Danny and his crew were in broke down and they got there a little later. The Kung Si waterfall is a tired fall that flows over limestone formation and has turquiosed water pools to swim in. It's probably the most beautiful waterfall I've seen with it being a "natural waterpark" for kids or us. We climbed to the top of the falls, which wasn't too interesting but the climb backdown was slippy and required me to concentrate - BAD TIMES. We weren't supposed to, but we swam under the huge falls. I tried swimming towards it but the power of the fall wasn't allowing me to get close. Best way to describe this scenario was like swimming on a treadmill, as I wasn't getting any closer! We made our way down the waterfalls, with loads of mini falls on the way until we hit the main area for us, where there was a rope swing. Obviously this meant we stayed there for a while until darkness hit us, and we all wished we got here earlier because we could have eaily spent all day here.
Luang Prabang Photo Link:
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