Waterfalls, Bears and Buddha

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It is approximately 200km from Luang Nam That to Luang Prabang; in Laos this means 11 hours in a rickety death bus. Eventually though after around 4 near misses (that I saw), the roof leaking during a storm and a crazy girl sitting in front of us; we made it to Luang Prabang.

The town of Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site which for us originally meant that our bus was not able to get into the city centre and we had to chuck our bags onto the back of a tuk tuk and ride into town. The tuk tuk ride took around 10 minutes and cost us around $1 which seems like a bargain to most people but not for the rest of the westerners on our bus who we saw walking out of the bus stop with there big travel bags on there backs in the dark in a random city because none of the tuk tuk drivers would lower there price. This is not the first time that I have seen this phenomenon and it makes me wonder every time.

Luang Prabang used to be the capital of Laos and was the home of the Royal Family. It is a city full of French architecture, Royal palaces and Buddhist temples. It was a great place to relax and unwind whilst sitting in a riverside cafe watching monks walk by. And when that got to hard we treated ourself to a very very cheap yet very very good massage.

There are many waterfalls near Luang Prabang and we went out to visit one for an afternoon. It was very beautiful but we forgot to bring our swimmers so we were not able to go swimming in the many pools that were attached to the waterfall. However we did get to visit a rescued bear enclosure.

We also visited The Pok Ou Caves which are around 1 1/2 hours from Luang Prabang by boat. Inside these Caves are thousands and thousands of Buddha images that people have left there over time.

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Photos

Pok Ou Caves
These caves are filled with Budha statues that people have left there over time