December 29, 2006 Luangprabang, Laos

December 29, 2006
Luangprabang, Laos

For the first time in what seems like forever we were able to sleep in. I woke up at 9:30. When I returned from my morning shower the other boys started getting up. Once they had prepared themselves for the day we set out in search of some food. We returned to the French café where we had dinner and treated ourselves to a nice breakfast. NOTE: We were amused by a beggar who entered the shop in a military outfit asked everyone for money and then left. He returned 5 minutes later in a totally different outfit and asked everyone for money again.

By the time we left the restaurant it was nearly 11:00. We returned to the room and grabbed a few things before setting out on the days adventure. B decided to stay behind and send a few post cards while Spizz and I went to check out Kwang XI Waterfall.

Spizz and I headed back to the main street in town in search of a song tao that would take us to the waterfall. Eventually we found a driver who would take us there for 5 USD each. On the way we stopped and picked up an Israeli couple. It was a surprisingly long drive (35 km) and took over half an hour.

When we arrived we had no idea what to expect. We purchased our tickets (15,000 Khipp) and headed into the park. On our way to the waterfall we were surprised to find a bear and tiger rescue center. Excited, we watched the black bears play in their enclosure. Next, we went in search of the tiger. We looked for quite a while before finding the large tiger hiding in a small building in his enclosure. When he spotted us he came to the edge of the fence to investigate. Fascinated, we watched the Tiger for a long time before moving on.

Eventually we pulled ourselves away from the wildlife and continued our journey to the waterfall. After a few minutes we came upon a beautiful swimming hole. The water was such so blue it looked as if someone had spilled food coloring into the pool. Obviously, I had to jump in.

We left the swimming pool in complete awe. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. A few minutes later we were shocked to find another large pool, even more beautiful. Again, I jumped in. After taking a number of photographs we continue on. We passed several more amazing swimming holes before reaching the main waterfall.

The main waterfall was massive. It came cascading down from incredibly high. We wandered around the base before finding a trail that went to the top. It was an incredibly steep hike. Halfway up we stopped at gorgeous viewpoint and took some more photographs. We then continue our steep hike to the top.

Exhausted, we reached the top of the waterfall. We looked out across a striking valley and waded through the river feeding the falls. After a short rest we started back down the mountain.

We got back to the swimming holes at 15:30. We then rushed back to our driver because we had planned to meet the Israeli couple at 15:00. Fortunately, they were not back yet either. As we waited for them we decided to eat an early dinner.

We all piled back into our song tao and headed back into town. Just as on the way there the road was quite dusty and we crossed over some rundown bridges. We got back into town a few minutes before 17:00.

From there we returned to our room and took showers to wash off the mud from our hike up the mountain. We then sorted through our photos for the day and told B how awesome the waterfall was.

A little after 18:30 we headed out to grab some dinner. We went to a sportsbar that had, get this, the exact same menu as the place we have been eating at since we got here. Everything was exactly the same, from the prices to the selection.

After dinner we headed down to use the internet before retiring to our room for the evening.