Day 79: Kuang Xi Waterfall

Last day in Luang Prabang today. The main thing we wanted to do today was the unmissable Kuang Xi waterfalls about 30km outside of town, as everyone talks about how great they are and we hadn't been there yet! So after our usual hotel breakfast and relaxation, we wandered out to the main street and booked ourselves a minivan leaving at 1:30pm. We knew this would mean sharing with others, but the price was reasonable and definitely cheaper than getting our own tuk-tuk (and we'd have a/c besides!).

After booking the tour we walked over to the cruising office and paid for our river cruise up to the Thai border which departs tomorrow morning. The person staffing the office was a young French lady, so we had a little chat to her as well. Next stop for the morning was a riverfront cafe we'd seen a few days earlier, which had looked very good. So we stopped in for an iced coffee/juice, and liked it so much we ended up staying for lunch too! It was run by an Australian guy from Brisbane who also had a quick chat to us.

Back to the hotel and changed ready for the waterfalls. Picked up at 1:30 from the tour office and the bus was (of course) jam packed with 13 others, but whatevs, off we go. The falls are about 30km outside of town so the drive is only about 40 minutes; the driver was a bit crazy at first but soon calmed down.

Upon arriving at the waterfall it was immediately clear that we wouldn't be doing much swimming - it was the middle of the wet season and the falls that are usually a nice steady flow were instead a raging torrent! There was a bridge across the main plunge pool and looking down from that you could see a couple of heavily-damaged boardwalks that had obviously been almost washed away by the powerful current.

We took some photos and walked alongside the watercourse - there were lots and lots of smaller falls and pools, some higher and rougher, some smaller and calmer, and a couple of spots where people were swimming. I stuck my foot in but the water was icy cold - no thank you! I didn't come to the tropics to swim in freezing water!

Watched a couple of people diving off a log into the pool which seemed like madness, as the water was muddy brown and you had no idea what the depth was. It seemed quite deep just under the log, but a vigorous leap or more than 20 degrees in the wrong direction and you'd probably be diving into waist-deep water. No wonder so many westerners die in Lao rivers!

We hung around here for probably an hour, doing a bit of people watching and slowly getting up the nerve to brave the chill. But eventually we bailed without swimming, and wandered further down the path to where there was a sun bear sanctuary! These are very small bears, I think the smallest of all bears? We couldn't see any of the adults around, but the juvenile ones looked like oversized wombats. Cute.

By now it was almost time to depart, but we quickly walked back up to the main falls for a few more photos - not many turned out unfortunately as the sun had gone behind one of the canyon walls annoyingly. So we walked back down to the bus at the agreed 4pm time, so we were back in town around 4:30pm. Back to the hotel to change out of swimmers and re-pack before we headed out for dinner.

Decided we'd visit a fancy French restaurant on the main street for a change of pace! Run by French expats and staffed by locals, they had a very good wine list and some great French cuisine as well. Shandos had a few glasses of rosé wine, then a duck breast dish, while I had a mojito and a beer alongside a baked camembert. Both delicious! Though our bill was around 55 USD, making it comfortably our most expensive meal since leaving Australia (excepting $ingapore of course).

Off to bed early tonight, as our cruise pickup is at 6:30am!Read more