Luang Prabang
Waterfalls, Caves, Jungle and Tourism....

November 25, 26, & Nov. 30 - Dec. 10

Where we escaped to from Vientiane....
Luang Prabang (Loo as in toilet Ong as in Long, Pra as in Product, Bong as in hookah) is a World Heritage site. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I think it's something about protecting the history and natural surroundings from overdevelopment. Hence the growing airport, exploding hotel industry, and motorbike rentals....

You can fly here directly from BKK, JingHong, or Vientiane. It is an easy destination and a very popular one. 80%+ of the economy seems to be tourism, and the foreigners are everywhere. Backpackers, Aussies on holiday from Uni, retirees: everybody. The surrounding area is gorgeous, the city itself is quaint, and the food is good. Prices are, of course, at least double anywhere else in Lao, and most Lao people can't afford to come here to visit.

It is actually quite comfortable: I feel rather spoiled as I sit in my brand new hotel room, laptop plugged into the wall, anticipating a hot shower and a night's rest in a brand new bed that's actually made from a real mattress. I'll be staying here through Dec. 10th, once Kathy comes back from her business trip to China we will head north together.

Surrounding sites include the Kuang Xi waterfall and the Pak Ou cave with 500 Buddha statues. There is also a wonderful night market featuring local handicrafts, paintings, and weavings. The surrounding jungle and rivers are also gorgeous. The Nam Khan river meets the Mekong smack in the middle of town.

Wednesday, November 26, 2003 ~ Happy Birthday Kathy!!!
Kuang Xi Waterfall

We rented a motorbike and rode the 25km to the Kuang Xi falls. On the way the scenery was gorgeous, and we were on the road at about the same time as kids were going home for lunch. There were butterflies everywhere.

Once we arrived at the waterfall park, paid the 5,000k parking and 15,000k/per entry, we saw a cool cage and followed it down. The tiger's name is "Phet" with an aspirated 'P' like 'pet the cat', which is pretty ironic considering you can't... much as I wanted to. Phet was orphaned and her two brothers didn't make it. They have also taken in several bears and are raising those as well.

After visiting the tiger and the bears we headed up to the falls. I wish this camera could have caught the awesome, silt laden, ice blue color of the water, but it just wouldn't and I haven't been successful enough trying to adjust the color balance to make it worthwhile trying to get it close. The images in the sunshine come close.

The first is as much of the falls as our camera would capture. It was an early afternoon sun, so it got a bit washed out. We hiked up around to the right of the falls and got to the top. Look closely at the fourth picture in: this is where the river drops at the very top. The fifth shows the river before it falls, and the sixth as it falls looking down from the top. Also looking down from the top we noticed these people playing in a pool in the middle of the falls. We had to get there.

An hour later we arrived, and played for a couple of hours. Kathy had picked up some Oreo's for her birthday cake, and we shared those with some folks from San Francisco. Awesome time.

The river, being silt laden, covers everything in its path with hard rock deposits like in a cave. So everywhere is this rough surface that you simply can't slip on, and it's wrapping itself around whole trees. We had to walk up part of the falls across a path of this sedimentary deposit to get to the pool.

Monday, December 1, 2003
Pak Ou Cave

We took a river boat up to see the cave with all the Buddha in it. It was two hours up and one hour back. We spent an hour walking around the caves (upper and lower). It was very interesting, and I would have been more interested if I hadn't been fighting the bacterial battle for control of my bowels. Anyway, I'm better now. Here's some pictures:

Saturday, December 6, 2003
Nong Khiaw

I did some volunteer work here in Luan Prabhang and helped out an internet cafe. Viruses had been running rampant throughout their systems, so we rebuilt all their systems and made sure they had virus protection in place before bringing them back online. Pretty simple workgroup with shared dialup. It was nice to actually be able to do something constructive, I kind of miss working.

Anyway, the folks that run the joint are really cool, and invited me to go along on their weekend outing to Nong Khiaw. So I went. Nong Khiaw is on the Nam Ou river, which is used as transportation between Luang Prabang and the northern parts of Lao (Oudomxay, Phongsaly). The scenery is gorgeous.

Today I saw two things I'd never seen before. I say the only albino Asian I've ever seen. I thought she was a northern European at first, but she was in a tiny roadside village and definitely looked Lao. The other thing I saw was one child help another clean themselves off after going #2. They used a stick. Needless to say, I didn't have my camera out for either event, and I doubt I would've snapped if I did. But it was definitely interesting.

On the road to Nong Khiaw we traveled through great jagged peaks of jungle cut out by the multitude of rivers and farmland. Notice the teak farm in the first shot.

In Nong Khiaw at the boat landing. There are an amazing number of guesthouses here for all the transients that come though on their way elsewhere.

Main street Nong Khiaw.

The Nam Ou river from the bridge at Nong Khiaw. I'm standing with Ping, the owner of the Planet Internet cafe.
Thanks Ping!

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Copyright 2003, Dana M. Brash. All Rights Reserved.