Tuk-Tuk Waterfall

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Walk through the streets of Luang Prabang and you will hear "tuk-tuk waterfall" about 100 times before reaching your destination. Well, we wanted to see the waterfall, but not by tuk-tuk. So, we rented some bikes (some poorly made Chinese beach cruisers with no gears) and set off for a 35km Tour-de-France loop up into the mountains towards Kuang Si waterfall. Our book described the ride as "gently undulating through rice paddies." Well, it was more like "straight uphill through limestone peaks" with a few downhills that seriously tested our poor bikes braking capacities. The ride was beautiful, though more than challenging in the 90 degree heat (that Megan even made it to the end was a miracle). The waterfall was well worth the trip, with a series of smaller falls with great swimming pools, and then up at the top there was a three tier, nearly 100m fall that was absolutely spectacular (probably one of the most incredible falls either of us have seeen ever). We spent a few hours hiking between the pools, swimming (trying to bring down our severely overheated internal body temps), and picknicking (we had brought some delicious baguette sandwhiches). For the ride back, Megan opted to hop on a tuk-tuk, while Matt thought he would endure and ride home. He left first (luckily), because about 10 minutes into the tuk-tuk ride, we came across him stranded on the side of the road with a broken chain. The three hour bike ride there was only about a 25 minute ride home.

We ended up spending over a full week in Luang Prabang (LP), which provided a very well-deserved break from long bus rides and the bumpy, inefficient travel through Laos. It also gave us lots of time to see and do absolutely everything the city and surroundings had to offer. In addition to the Kouang Si waterfall, we took another day trip (this time by tuk-tuk) to the Tad Sae Waterfall, which was not nearly as spectacular, but much less touristy and probably even more fun. The waterfall was actually a series of many low falls flowing from pool to pool, so we hiked up along them (the difference between Laos and the US was definitely highlighted in the trail system-the bridges across rivers and pools had all but collapsed (and in some cases had actually collapsed)-but we were still allowed to crawl along them at our own risk-and to Matt's delight!).

One of the highlights of our stay in LP was a full day cooking course (one would never expect Matt to choose that as a day's activity-but it was more at his prompting than mine that we decided to do it). We visited the market in the morning (the real one, not the tourist one) and got a tour of all the food stalls and how everything is used and what ingredients are popular. We then went back to the restaurant where the classes were held for a day filled with cooking and lots and lots of eating (probably why Matt was so excited for it!) We prepared two dishes for lunch-a traditional Lao salad and a fried noodle dish, and then three for dinner including some sticky rice and jeow bong (the famous Lao chili paste). Peter-how about a Thai-Lao cook-off when we get back? Matt'll blow out your sinuses with his jeow bong!

Our last day in LP was spent trekking to Hmong and Khmu hill tribe villages with the same tour company we had used for our river rafting trip (Green Discovery-we would highly recommend them!). It was really cool to see the vanillages and going with our guide helped us to feel less intrusive since he could speak with the people and ask permission for our picture-taking. We stopped in a rice paddy along the way to watch a family beating the rice out of the dried stalks (afterwards they carry the rice in 50kg-that's over a 100lbs-bags on their back uphill, about a mile-but with at least a 1000ft of elevation gain- to their village. It's pretty incredible, especially considering that the villagers are only about 45kg- I don't think Matt or I will be complaining about the weight of our packs anytime soon.

We finally moved on from LP to Vang Vieng-about 4 hours down the Mekong. It is a gorgeous town tucked in a valley between huge Karst peaks. There is one main activity that the town is known for-tubing-so we tubed. We heard great things about it and it met our expectations and beyond. It was essentially a bar-crawl down the river, where the crawling takes place on tubes and is only about 1 hour of the 6+ hour trip. Each of the bars had their own signature zip line (or as the Aussie's say: Flying Fox) or rope swing. It was a great way to spend the day and meet dozens of other travellers.

We only spent one day in Vang Vieng before hopping on another pick up truck for yet another dusty, bumpy, cramped ride to Vientiane-the capital. Our pick up truck took more than just passengers-a live goat rode on the roof and a barrel of fish was strapped on the tailgate. Vientiane was nothing special, but was quiet and enjoyable to walk around. The night we got there we happened upon a huge fair/festival along the river, which made for some great people watching and good entertainment.

We decided to move on the next day as our Vietnam visa had already started the week before. We rode our bikes out to the airport looking for an atm (the chain broke again on Megan's bike-hopefully this doesn't become a trend with all bikes we rent), and made an impromptu decision to fly 1 hour to Hanoi, rather than our planned 20 hour bus ride. It was a bit out of our price range, but was well worth it considering the hassle we avoided and that we'd still be on the bus right now. Instead, we have spent a full day here in Hanoi, Vietnam-our first destination in the third country of our trip.

Hanoi is an insane city-crazy enough that just sitting and watching someone try to cross the streets through thousands of motorcycles is entertaining. Not to mention the aerobics classes that take place nightly in the park (we may join in this evening if we can find leotards or pyjamas, which seem to be the requisite attire). Just as we were commenting on the craziness of driving during our bus ride from the airport to the city, we witnessed a lady and her child crashing their motorcycle. Luckily no one seemed to badly hurt and the traffic expertly swerved around them.

Tomorrow we leave for a 3 day Junk cruise through Halong Bay. Hopefully it lives up to all the great comments we've heard from other people. We'll write in a few days when we get back. Much love, M & M

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Photos

let's kick it up a notch
us in our cute Tamnak Lao cooking class aprons

Khmu Village
(they are distinguished from the Hmong villages because the houses are on stilts.)

whistling into the darkness
the final stretch...after dark

the Phousi Market
one of the many culinary delights we were introduced to...we think it's chili powder

delicious food
we're salivating looking at this picture thinking about the dinner we're about to go get after we finish our blog.

Matt jumping 2
at Tad Sae

Harvesting rice
everything is done by hand under the hot afternoon sun. incredible.

Hops for beer Lao
this is also a favorite snack that the locals munch on all day long.

The milkman's baby
An adorable little Hmong girl in the village. Blonde hair is very unique here.

villagers
the wife and grandkids of the village Shaman

Vang Vieng tubing
gettting out at stop number 1...literally 50m from where you put in

Megan on the Flying Fox
it took a group of British rugby players cheering her on to give it a go

Don't forget to wash up
These educational signs are posted in the classrooms in the rural villages; look closely at the image on the top left.

funny sign
I don't think we're supposed to swim here.

Comments

[Maja]

JUST EXCELLENT
Hello, Megan and Mat! I am about 30km out of Hanoi, near the airport, waiting for tomorrow's plane back home to Slovenia. I am havin fun reading your blog and some more of the stuff we talked about. This entry I find the best so far! Great effort, but great things usually happen after the great effort!!! Enjoy your further travelling. I am looking forward to another beach volley game with you at some such nice place as yesterday! :) Bye, Maja