Day 18 - Waterfalls and a Sunset Cruise

The alarm clock sounded at 6.44am for our big day out. I had planned to be at breakfast by 7am and on the road by 7.30am. Sadly Jackie’s hair and beauty regime put paid to that and we didn’t mount our scooter hired from the hotel until 8.30am.

The queue to cross the single file scooter carriageway on the Old Bridge was chaotic with a traffic cop either end to regulate the flow. Jackie hurriedly donned her helmet as the cop came in to our view.

We weaved our way through the Luang Prabang rush hour traffic and out of the city on the Phothisarath Road, which soon became the 2501. We were heading to Kuang Si Falls, which was 29 kilometres south of Luang Prabang. I had planned to fill up with fuel, but the first petrol station was heaving with at least 50 scooterists clambering to fill up. Other petrol stations were closed.

After about a third of the way into our journey the tarmac ended and we were subjected to mud roads, gravel roads, combinations of both and a 5 km stretch of road that was currently laid. The gravel lorries and road rollers were doing their thing across the road without any attempt at traffic control. It was up to us other road users to pick our way around them.

To make matters much much worse, fleets of tour mini vans were racing along the unmade roads way too fast throwing up stones and clouds of dust. Presumably to get their passengers, Korean tourists, to the waterfalls as early as possible.

Apart from one out of control skid on wet mud, we managed to arrive safely at our destination, although it was not an enjoyable ride. We parked up and our hearts sank when we saw the volume of minibuses that had already arrived.

It was 60,000 Kip (£2) to enter Kuang Si Falls, then we queued up to catch a stretch golf cart to transport us up a muddy road to the official entrance. We marched up the main road, instead of the jungle walkway, and found the bear sanctuary.

Moon bears and Sun bears are native to Laos and the bears in the sanctuary were rescued from poorly run Asian zoos. It was nice to see they looked healthy and well cared for and had the run of several huge enclosures.

We continued up the main road until we arrived at the main Kuang Si Falls, they were quite impressive and most surprisingly it was relatively quiet. We took a couple of snaps from the bridge, including a couple of selfies without Jackie’s chin, then we saw a sign advertising ‘The View’.

It was 542 steps to reach the view, but it promised magnificent views at the top. Not wishing to miss out, we felt we had no choice but to commit to the climb. After a hundred steps I was knackered, the dehydration and lack of food in the last 48 hours was taking its toll. After an embarrassingly slow climb, I reached the top only to discover that we had to pay an extra 30,000 Kip each to climb another 50-60 steps to The View cafe.

We had got this far, so we had no choice but to pay up and climb. At the cafe we bought an iced coffee and a banana and strawberry shake. We found a table and chairs, then looked out to admire the view. Unless you particularly love looking down on the broccoli-like tree canopy of a jungle, the view was somewhat disappointing. We felt slightly cheated, because we were expecting views overlooking the waterfalls.

The highlight of The View cafe was a continuous procession of stripy ants marching down a post.

We were psyching ourselves up for the walk back down the 542 steps, when we noticed a footpath heading off into the jungle. The path led us to a couple of pools that trickled out over the edge to form the main waterfall. From this location we found the fantastic views we were expecting. There was the opportunity to swim in the pools but we both declined.

We walked down the tricky trail to the bottom of the waterfall. Jackie’s flip flops were not the right attire (sturdy shoes are recommended) and at one point the strap ripped out of the sole, but luckily she was able to mend them.

At the bottom, we tried to take a better selfie, then a guest at our hotel appeared and offered to take a photo of the two of us. We accepted his offer and even raised our arms when he suggested we did.

We followed the jungle footpath all the way down to the exit. It was well laid out with numerous pools, some for swimming and others sacred. We also saw the bears again.

We were dreading the ride back, but it wasn’t half as bad. There were fewer minibuses, the road-workers had stopped for lunch and the wet patches were drying out. We stopped for petrol close to the falls and filled the tank with £1.50 worth. At the same time, a very elderly couple pulled to a stop at the pump on their scooter and immediately toppled over, sending two large boxes of bottled water flying. The wife hurt her leg and was not happy with her hapless husband. Fancy injuring your wife when she is on the back of your scooter!!

We stopped around halfway at Full House Cafe, where I had a gorgeous mango smoothie, whilst Jackie had a beer. A strange thing happened there, we saw Jackie’s deceased mum’s doppelgänger, it was a spooky likeness. The cafe itself was a tourist hotspot for Instagramable photos of the wooden walkway and huts sitting above a vivid green paddy field.

We returned to Luang Prabang and to our hotel to shower and freshen up intending to find a sunset cruise that evening.

At 4pm we scootered back into town, now in the evening rush hour. The Old Bridge was chaos, but nothing like at the junction of Thommathat Road and Ratsavong Road on the southern side of Mount Phousi. The road was at a complete standstill with literally hundreds of minibuses jostling for space for pickups and drop-offs.

Desperate action was required and I weaved my way through the vans, then saw a one too many narrow gap to shoot through and went for it. Unfortunately as we raced through, I heard a loud thud. It was Jackie’s knee hitting something, believed to be someone’s wing mirror. I didn’t stop despite the moaning (maybe wailing) from my pillion passenger.

We parked up alongside the Mekong and walked (In Jackie’s case limped) along looking for a suitable sunset cruise. We found the most appealing to be Sa Sa Cruises. I think it was because the lady selling the tickets was wearing a captain’s hat.

Anyway, our 5pm to 7pm sunset Mekong cruise cost less than £10 for which we also got a free cocktail, snacks and two surprises. The cruise was really enjoyable and despite the weather not being great, we were treated to a half decent sunset and a good luck bracelet.

Towards the end of the cruise, the surprises were a tank of fish being (un)ceremoniously released into the Mekong for good luck and a paper bag on a stick which was squirted with water until it dropped into the water. We think there were birds in the paper bag, but we’re not certain. If there were, they presumably escaped when the bag got wet or they just drowned.

After the cruise we had dinner at Bouang Asian Eatery. It was stunning and better still it was the first proper meal we ate and had truly loved in the last few days. Jackie had a crunchy salad containing ham, peanuts, rice and spice, whilst I had herby Lao meatballs with salad and sticky rice.

We rode home and handed the scooter keys in at reception, where they were surprised when I told them I had fuelled it up. Apparently all petrol stations in Luang Prabang are running out and closing due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Song of the Day - A Sunset by Pulp.Read more