Although slightly earlier, there wasn’t much special about this morning. Wake up, get ready, grab some breakfast at then hotel, then catch a ride. The ride however, would be taking us about 1 hour out of town over to the Kuang Si Waterfalls.
The roads around Laos aren’t exactly stable, and the would be the second most extreme example of this throughout the trip. Our driver was seemingly quite experienced, as he was maneuvering around large potholes and rocks relatively smoothly, but some instances (especially when passing another vehicle) caused the vehicle to bump around a lot. It is a very scenic drive however, as you’re starting to go through some of the mountains covered in vibrant green jungle and sprawling rice fields.
We make it to our first and main stop of the drive, which is the Kuang Si Waterfalls. Large tiered waterfalls with multiple different pooling areas that you can go for a swim in. On the way to the first pool, we pass by a bear shelter, where they have both species of bears native to Laos, being rhe Asian black bear, and the sun bear, though we only saw the black bears when we walked by.
We go past the first pool to the second, which like the rest of the waterfall, is a cool blue-green color. Since we’ve been walking around in the heat a little bit now, the pool is looking pretty inviting, so we hop in to go for a swim and cool down. I get some pictures in the water before drying off and continuing the trek to the uppermost pool.
For the first 4 pools, you simply continue taking the path for another 5-10 minutes before you get to the next one. The last pool wasn’t quite the same, as it was a 547 step ascent in order to get there. As will be a reaccuring theme in Laos, a lot of the hiking or walking around we do in Laos wouldn’t have been a problem for me in Canada, but when you take the same activity and add 20-30 degrees and a ton of humidity, it becomes much more taxing, especially if you suck at dealing with the heat like I do. Because of this, after going up to the top of the staircase and back down, the pools of water looked that much more tempting.
We hop in the third pool and I swim around some more, climbing up some parts of the waterfall as it pours down on my head, the cool water being a very welcome change of pace. Finally after having cooled down and dried off, we make our way back to the entrance where I picked up a delicious dragonfruit lemon drink for the ride.
Our next stop on the ride is a buffalo farm that specializes in buffalo ice cream, which is never not worth a visit. I pick chocolate, which yes is a boring choice, but in my defense if you pick a super unique flavor, it can be hard to tell what makes buffalo ice cream different compared to a more familiar flavor like chocolate. It just so happens that I also really like chocolate.
Second last stop was at a small Hmong village, where you can walk through and buy some of the textile products they make there to support the village. We buy a couple items before leaving for our last stop before we go back to Luang Prabang, which is a café that has it’s seating on small islands in a rice field. It’s a cute layout, and when we find one to sit in, the staff come by to take our order. We get some ice cold chocolate milk, coffee, and mango juice to enjoy while overlooking the fields. The drinks were delicious and a very welcome temporary solution to the heat.
We take some photos and finish up before hopping back in the van to go back to Luang Prabang. After some relaxing back at the hotel, we head out to a restaurant run by the hotel just across the street. I get some spring rolls and fried chicken. The chicken was fine, but the spring rolls were very good. We make another stop at the night market just to do some last mibute shopping before we leave tomorrow morning for Huay Xai.
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