Luang Prabang

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Once we got off the slowboat all we wanted to do was sit on something soft. We found a pretty good hotel, with the softest bed that we've slept in so far! The next morning we booked a trip to see the waterfalls they have around there. At 1:30 we left, it was a 50 min drive that I'm sure should have taken about 1hr and 15min but we had a crazy driver. It was a gravel road and on almost every corner we were sliding across the road. We managed to make it there in one piece though. At the bottom of the waterfalls there is a bear rescue camp where they had about 15 black bears that were either orphaned or captured at a young age by poachers. They also had a tiger who was rescued when she was only a couple of months old and was being sold on the black market. It was a really sad story but it was good to see that she was doing really well now. The fisrt part of the waterfalls were swimming holes. There were about 3 different places that you could swim in. The water was a light teal color, it looked like they had lights glowing under the water, but it was all natural. We didn't have any time to swim though. We decided to hike up to the top of the falls. There was a ledge right before all the water fell down and you could walk right to the edge and look over. It was amazing. That night back in town we went to a place where they have a traditional Lao barbecue. They take out the middle of your table and put in a bucket of burning coals. They brought out all the food and we were left to cook it all ourselves. It was a really good meal. We got to try all of the Lao sauces, some were really spicy!! We also tried the Lao Vatka which tasted exactly like the Lao Lao whiskey, really gross!! The next day we checked out the Royal Lao Museum, which is the palace that the king used to live at. It was really cool to see, they take your cameras at the door so we didn't get any pictures. But every wall was a mural, made out of glass. After that we climbed up all the steps to get to the Wat on top of the hill right in the middle of town. There was a few really huge Buddahs on the hill and a cave with a shrine inside. They also had a buddah footprint which was huge. We stayed up there to watch the sunset, it was a really nice sunset with the Mekong river in the foreground. But as soon as it started people started comming so it ended up like a circus up there with everyone trying to get to the front to take their pictures. It definetly ruined the moment. That night we had a hotel with a balcony that overlooked the Mekong, so we sat out there. There was a birthday party across the street so we got to listen to Lao pop music blaring until about 11:00! The next morning we got on the mini-bus with another crazy driver. I guess that I should stop expecting more. On the way to Vang Vieng we almost hit a couple of cows, a man, and a family of water buffalos. But we made it!

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Photos

Poor Tiger
The picture of the tiger when she was rescued. She was all pink because she had lost almost all of her hair

Me at the top
Standing in the river right on top of the biggest falls

Top of the hill
Us at the top by the wat right before the sun went down, looking over Luang Prabang

From our balcony
The beautiful sights we could see right from our room. We couldn't get a picture that wasn't blurry though.