R &R in LP

We did a couple of half day tours yesterday. One took us up the mighty Mekong to view a small set of caves. To be honest, the caves were pretty unimpressive, but the journey up the river was sweet. Our afternoon adventure took us to some local waterfalls about 30 kilometers out of town. Our expectations were low, partly based on the small falls we'd seen in earlier travels, party because the cave visit was mostly a hole in the wall filled with a billion little Buddhas. These falls were some of the most splendid we have ever visited. There are hundreds of little pools with aqua blue water splashing down a few feet into the next pool. The refreshing swimming holes are surrounded thick forests of monster trees and plants with those enormous leaves. The falls mimicked the neighboring terraced rice paddies calling us to swim in each of them.

The tour only gave us a few hours at the falls which left just enough time to hike the steep hill to the top, take a dip, and climb back down. It was also home to many Asian black bears who have been saved and put in a large enclosed sanctuary with a ton of toys and custom made bear hammocks. With so much of this area to explore we decided to rent motorbikes in a couple days and return to spend the whole day walking through the jungle and swimming in the pools.

Today, we took another pair of dollar a day bicycles and explored further into the urban areas, crossed more bridges, and climbed the remaining temples we only previously saw from a distance. We finished the afternoon lounging on the edge of the river drinking BeerLao in the beach. All activities I speak of are buffered on each side by excellent food and drink.

Location:Luang Phrabang Laos