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Published: September 19th 2009
Signing back in. Well, I just spent 3 days in Luang Probang, Laos. Coming to Laos had not been planned. When I was in Siem Reap I ended up having to figure out what I wanted to do for 3 extra nights. Go back to Vietnam or come here. I am very glad I came here.
How do you describe this place? Its like the pace meter has been turned back 4 notches. Everything here is slower and the pace is so laid back. This city was made a world heritage site in 95 and its pretty interesting. The city itself is not giant but its not a small place either. However, where all the tourists hang out is this one strip of a street lined by restaurants, shops, guesthouses and tour shops. Its a mix of European architecture with asian influences. The people here do not try to sell you things near as much as in Cambodia or Vietnam. At 6 or 7pm it really slows down. It seems like everyone has this agreement to go to bed early and get up early. It may have something to do with those dang monks running around. They are everywhere.
Paradise in Jungle
This is the waterfall farthest away from town. Khan sea or somethingThis city is full of temples everywhere. Some from the 16th century, so they are very beautiful and interesting with many ornate carvings and lots of scary dragons and monsters. But the monks have this habit. The first morning I was here at 4 am I woke up to this load bass noise. At first I thought it was someone driving by with their speakers in the car turned all the way up but then I realized I had seen no motorbikes since I got here with a sound system capable of producing that kind of noise. I went to the door and I could feel it vibrating with this loud bass beat. I got dressed and went outside and followed the noise to across my street. Those monks were getting down! I could not see them but oh my goodness where they wailing on bells and drums to beat the band. I was very grateful to realize that at 4:15pm they stopped. This occured each morning at 4 am for 15 minutes. So, if you live in Luang Probang you either learn to sleep through the noise or you just become an early riser. The next day in the
light I went and looked at the drum and its huge. It hangs in its own building. I have no more sympathy though for any householder in th US who complain about Jehovah's witnesses coming by their door at 10 am. I will just tell them if they think thats bad they can move to Laos and have the budhists monks wake them at 4 in the morning with drums the size of a volkswagon.
The scenery here is very beautiful. Luang Probang is at the confluence of the Kan and the Mekhong rivers. It is surrounded by these mid size mountains covered in trees. It reminds me alot of the appalachian mtns in NC. The trees are all hard woods with some palms thrown in here and there. Lots of Teak wood trees. Everything here is just a brilliant green.
The first day I was here I was feeling down and full of self pity. My mom and sister can probably attest to that. As it was raining in the morning I struggled with even going out. I had rented a Motorscooter for the 3 days I was here for $45 and I was glad to have
had my wheels back. I had planned on going to a waterfall pretty far from town about 30k but since it was raining I decided to postpone that for a day. As the rain stopped, I went ahead and just went exploring on my bike. I found a road that led out of town and rode about 25km. On the way I passed this old faded sign for a waterfall named Thad Sea. I turned around and drove back after ahile and found myself on this pretty bad dirt road. I was hoping it led somewhere when I came across this gate across the road. A Laotian came out and handed me a ticket but I had no idea what for. While I was there a tuk tuk came up and there were 3 guys in the back from France. One of them spoke a little English and he stated to just follow them as he had been here before years earlier.
I followed the tuk tuk for several km and came across a small village with a small temple. I parked and followed the French men down to the river. There we had to purchase a ticket for
a boat ride for about a dollar and a half. There were these really long narrow boats with engines. We were motioned to sit in them and oh man, they were tippy. Every motion by anyone in the boat seemed like it was going to make the boat tip over. We all sat down and tried very hard not to move. I just kept thinking of my camera being dunked in the river. He started his little engine and we took off downriver. After about 5 minutes I could see a small river waterfall further downstream pouring into the main current. He pulled into a place with other boats a bit upstream from that. As I hiked up the stairs into the Jungle one of the first things I saw was 5 elephants all under an enclosure. What a sight. They are such magnificent creatures and its just nice to see them in the backdrop of the jungle. I could hear the roar of water so after paying another couple of dollars to visit the waterfall I continued on up. What a sight! It was a giant waterfall with no real vertical to speak of but it just streached out
into the jungle with blue green water cascading everywhere over these limestone outcroppings. It was like a miniuture Niagra falls without the height. It was so beautiful. I found the changing room and changed and plunged in the water. It was so cool. It felt so good to be in it when your surrounded by humidity and heat. There were so many places where you could sit and let the water plunging from above cascade over your head and shoulders and back. It was like a great massage. How nice.
I went in and out of the pools for several hours. Right before I was getting ready to leave on local had a small animal on his shoulder. It turned out to be a baby/teen Civet. It was so cute. It had these huge brown eyes and would crawl all over your body just inspecting everything. It was so curious. It was soft as a baby kitten too. I got to hold and pet it for awhile and it was such a privilige to experience a new animal.
As I was leaving for the day, I got to the elephant enclosure and noticed that all the handlers had
taken off the tourist trappings and where climbing up onto the elephants and leading them up the trail that I had come down. I went ahead and followed them up and watched as they took all the elephants into one section of the fall and let the elephants go in for swimming. It was so fun to watch these huge creatures playing in the water. They would go right up to the falls and immerse themselves completely under water. At times it would look like they were smiling as they up above the surface. They just looked like it brought them so much happiness. I just could not believe I was sitting in a dense jungle in Laos watching these elephants swim in this gorgeous waterfall. I made it back home that night and I had to think about how bad my day had started but how I felt so good at the end of this magnificent day. I had been feeling so low this morning and had prayed for strength to keep going and this evening I was just feeling so upbuilt from all I seen and done that day. An answer? I don't know but it was what
I needed. What was funny is that I did not realize till later that night that this was the waterfall that Sarah and David had told me about. I had it confused with another one, but after reading her email it dawned on me that they were one and the same.
The next day I got up and it was raining again. As has been the case however each day it rains during the night and in the morning but seems to clear out all the way by the time I am ready to go which is great. I once again headed out on my bike but this time to a waterfall really far out. About 30km away. It was such a nice day for a ride. A bit overcast and not too hot. The drive took me meandering through the countryside and through several small villages. What was nice is that there is hardly any cars or trucks here unlike Cambodia and Vietnam. It was like riding on the blue ridge parkway back in North Carolina with slowly winding roads making there way through the countryside while surrounded by these beautiful green mountains.
I make it to
the outer waterfall. I cant remember for the life of me the name of it. It starts with a K. somethng like Kang sea but I have no idea at this moment. Of course I had to pay to park and then pay to enter into the path that leads to the waterfall. On the way on the path I encountered a large caged enclosure with maybe 8 or 10 big black bears. On examining them further I noticed that they were about the size of the North American black bear but very different in the way it looked. It had these large mane like things coming out from the sides of it jaw area of its head and when they stood up they had these nice white patches right under their chins. I found out they are asiatic black bears and because of the white patch they are also known as moonbears. I also learned that these bears had been rescued from bile factories in parts of SE asia. Its so horrible. The bile from these bears gall bladders are valued for medicinal purposes. So there are these farms where they will tie the bear up and build a
cage around it so it can't move then they cut into its abdomen and insert a catheter into its gallbladder so that the bile can drain into collectors. These bears will live for years in these conditions and no once can truly understand the mental and physical torture this is to them. These bears now live here and have these very large enclosures with many toys and things to play with and climb on. They are well fed and taken care of. I still cant believe how bad man can be to other creatures.
I continued to hike up the trail and came to the river and several small ponds similiar to what I had done the day before but not as wide. I hiked all the way up and finally came to one of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen in my life. It was so tall and the water was so clean and fresh coming down from it. It was sureal how it was totally framed on all sides by the lush jungle and it just kept going up as if waterfall after waterfalls were stacked up on each other. Was amazing and for maybe
an hour I had the place to myself until the busses of tourists arrived. At that point I decided to head down the path and find one of the smaller sections where they allowed swimming. I picked a great one that was deep and had a great waterfall for a back massage and good old fashioned rope swing so I could watch for potential trauma victims as people had to try it. I tell you one thing, there is no way I would ever jump into water from a height where I had not checked the depth or had watched other people do it. But, people would jump right in without a thought. Fortunatly the water in the area was deep enough.
What another great day. I am telling you that there is nothing better than swimming in cool clean water in the middle of a humid hot jungle. It is so refreashing its hard to describe. I had a great ride back and on the way I came to a spot at the top of a hill that overlooks the town from a distance. To my suprise I could make out the jagged peaks of some very large
mtns behind the rolling hills that surrond the town. I had no idea there were peaks like that here. I inquired about it and was told that there were no roads or ways of getting there other than a long jungle trek. I would have loved to have seen more of them.
A couple of other tourist things I did was to visit the Royal Palace that is now a museum. It was ok. really did nothing for me. A few interesting things seing the throne and the items that the family had used, but nothing really spectacular.
In the middle of town is a tall small peak. At the top is a small temple and you can hike to the top for a fee of course. I did that one evening about an hour before sunset. It was worth climbing up there as the view was 360 degrees all around. I also was fortunate as the clouds had cleared out and it was sunny in spots. Many people had the same idea and we watched the sunset as it went down. Was worth doing.
For my 3rd and last day, I really did not know what
to do. I had read about some caves with some budhist images in it about an hour ride up the Mekong river. I then thought about how much fun I had at the first waterfall I had gone to and it was close enough to town to go there swim some and then head back for the plane. Lets see, dark cave with images of budha an hours ride there on a hot boat or swimming in a beautiful waterfall with elephants nearby? It was a no brainer for me. Off to the waterfall for a 2nd visit. It was even better today. The sun was out and it was getting hot. Perfect for swimming. As I was swimming I started wondering if I talked to the guys with the elephants if they would let me pay to swim with one like I had seen them do the other day. Sarah and Dave had said they had done it but that it took a lot of arguing to get them to agree. I went down to the booth and asked them about it and they said 100,000 Kip, for 20 minutes swimming with an elephant. Thats $13 US and I
was like SOLD! I found a tourist from France who agreed to use my camera and off to the lower waterfall we headed.
It was one of the highlights of my trip. I had never even touched an elephant before and here I was riding on one's back right into the water as it played and rolled around in it. I had to be very carefull and keep my feet off the river's floor as if the elephant stepped on my foot it would crush it. I could not believe its power and the way it moved and felt. You could feel its power in the way it moved. I am a heavy guy but it did not blink when it would stand up with me on it. Its trunk was so soft and dexterous. It could be so delicate. You knew it could tear large branches off a tree with it but it was so gentle when it would grab your arm or hand. It was so moving to be next to it and you could see its eye looking at you back. It was money well worth spent and if you ever go there its a must
do.
What a great way to end my stay in Luang Probang, Laos. I am very glad to have made the last minute descision to go there. As I am back in Hanoi its quite the shock to leave such a quiet peaceful little city and to be back in Vietnam with its crowds, horns blaring and crazy traffic.
Signing off for now.
Dave
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Janice
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Indiana "Dave" Jones
Wow what an experience! I want to do that with the elephants and see the bears! Its hard to imagine sometimes that we will get to do that and so much more for forever. It's worth any price! The pictures from there reminded me of some of the Indianna Jones movies. Keep persevering in prayer. Have a good trip home. Thanks for the stories.