Pak Ou and the Kuang Si Waterfall

12^th November

Once again we had another early departure and by 7am we were back on the bus and driving towards Luang Prabang. 

Stray decided to switch up our mode of travel and after a few hours on the bus we took a boat along the Mekong River. This was actually a welcome change from the bus and the scenery was amazing.

We made a quick stop at the Pak Ou caves which is filled with up to 4,000 Buddha figures; some are up to 800 years old and some were added only days ago. Once we had seen the lower caves we made the trek to the upper cave which was fairly similar.

We headed back to the boat and arrived in Luang Prabang where we picked up our stuff, checked into our hostel and met for lunch. Surprise, surprise, we had western food from a western bar but it was just a quick snack before we headed off to the Kuang Si waterfall. We took the Stray bus to get to the waterfall but we had to pay an additional 50,000Kip which at just under £5 isn't that expensive but we'd already spent hundreds of pounds for our transport with Stray so it was a bit annoying to have to fork out, again, especially when we weren't even getting local transport, just our own bus!

It was 20,000Kip to get into the waterfalls, which we felt was pretty fair. After a quick look round the Bear Sanctuary at the entrance to the waterfall, we made out way to the designated swimming area. We even braved the rope swing and after making a complete fool of myself by belly flopping into the water, we jumped off the actual waterfall! The water itself was lovely and while we kept getting nibbled on by little fish, I could have stayed in for hours! Unfortunately, and for no apparent reason, our local guide rushed us back to the bus after half an hour! This was actually pretty annoying given we'd spent the money getting there but we didn't find out until after that we should have stayed for a few hours at least! Our local guide had a dinner with his family so perhaps that's why we cut our visit short!

We had planned to go to a local bar with the Stray group but while swimming I popped my ears and they were unbelievably sore so after a few paracetamol and lots of sympathy from Rory (after I told him I hated Southeast Asia and that I was going home to see my mum) I feel asleep at the very late hour of 8pm.