Toui, the local that is the liaison for the Aussie owner of our AirBnB house, arranged a driver to take us to Kuang Si waterfalls today. We had briefly contemplated riding to and from the falls a few days ago, until we found out it was 33km each way. The return trip would have been tough on the kids. Boy were we smart! The drive out there is on relatively smooth pavement through a rolling, farm filled landscape, but it was generally uphill all the way. We were surprised our flatlander dutch friends Nadine and Paul had such an easy time with it :-).
The base of the falls before the entry gate is typical tourist attraction - a ton of shops and restaurants. We smartly loaded up on water and snacks. The park has a number of waterfall pools that you can swim in. We decided to do the "hard" part first, so we hiked up a steep hill trail and, after a number of grunts, groans, moans and a few WTFs, we reached the top. It was not what we were expecting - at the top was a really cool flooded forest that literally emptied itself over the edge of a cliff.
It was hot! We hiked down to the first of the pools, and it was beautiful. The water was azure and the air around the falls was cool and crisp. It was really one of the most beautiful natural things we'd seen.
No sooner had we arrived than the four of us were in the water, basking on a rock near a small waterfall. It was so refreshing. I'm not sure on the temperature, it might have been 24 Celsius, but it was so good.
Abby had talked about getting a "foot fish spa" in town, where you would dunk your feet in a small pool of water and fish would eat the dead skin (ew). Well, we were getting that for free! If you stopped moving, the little fish would nibble away at you (I never knew I had so much dead skin!) - it was a bizarre feeling.
We made our way down to the next pool. It was way bigger and deeper, and was starting to fill up with tourists. It was pretty funny to see three middle aged Koreans swimming with full clothes (water shoes, socks, pants, jackets, hats and sunglasses) - they talk of dressing respectfully in Buddhist countries, but this was way over the top :-).
The girls found a tree limb to jump off, so naturally they headed right for it!
After a couple of hours, the dead skin was gone and we were waterlogged. We headed out, passing a bear sanctuary on the way. The bears were quite cute and pretty active - they were all rescued from the area.
It was a math afternoon, followed by a bit of cards and a nice dinner. I think the gang is getting a bit restless, but we are still very much enjoying Luang Prabang.
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