Our minivan picked us up at 8:35am which is really close to the 8:30am time they said they would. That is a rare occurrence when dealing with Asian busses. There were 2 other people in there. We stopped and picked up 1 more guy and were on our way… 5 people… in our minivan? This is too good to be true! There’s no way we will go up with only 5 people? OMG this is heaven!
Next, our 7 hour bus ride was 4 hours and it wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be. Life is good! Everything is coming up Milhouse!
Luang Prabang is beautiful! A quiet little town that seems it’s busiest at night time when a huge tourist market pops up and the main street in town closes. There is so much competition here that the vendors start negotiating the moment you hesitate: “discount fo youuu”
There is a small food street with a vegetarian buffet where you pay 15,000k per plate. Even better though, down on the river front is Riverside BBQ where you pay 60,000k per person and you have a BBQ put on your table and you eat anything you want from their buffet. Chicken, Beef, Pork, fish, squid, options galore! Plus they have ice cream included! I ate until I couldn’t eat anymore. Then I had another bowl of ice cream. They do charge you if you don’t eat all your food though. A good system to prevent waste.
The real reason for visiting Luang Prabang: Kwang Si Waterfall
We were lucky to join a group of people that had already negotiated like crazy to get a good price. We could have gotten a minivan for 50,000k per person and I saw options for Tuk Tuks for 40,000k per person. These people got us down to 25,000k per person and we didn’t have to do any work! Awesome!
The waterfall has a 20,000k entrance fee which is quite reasonable. Inside is a Moon Bear Sanctuary where they rehabilitate moon bears who were raised in captivity by people who shouldn’t have had bears.
The waterfall itself has a bunch of levels of pools. This is nice because there are a lot of people here.
Each level offers it’s own bit of beauty.
Finally you get to the main attraction and you pick a side to hike up to the top (though there isn’t much of a view).
We chose the right side which happens to be the wrong side. The right side is steep and slippery and actually a pretty tough climb. We went down the left side and had a bundle of regret not going up that side to begin with with.
We then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in one of the pools chatting with people. The water is effing cold so pick a hot day to go enjoy yourself!
We spent the rest of our days lazing around. We’re headed to Vientiane for a night and then flying to Malaysia where Kristi’s parents will join us for 2 weeks! We just have to get through this 9 hour bus ride…
