Water fights and Waterfalls

---

I was woken early this morning by a cat wining somewhere outside my room. It was still early and the sun was beating it's way in through the front of Sopha House. I looked up and noticed that the ceiling fan had stopped working, now understanding why it was so damn hot in my room. I wondered outside, slightly hungover, and the old guy whom I'd met the day before gestured and articulated that the power was out. I love the way that some things, no matter what language you speak, can be understood through a series of pointing movements. I returned to my room with a candle and lighter in hand to be able to see what I was doing. After a workout in my sweatbox style room, I had a blissfully cold shower before wondering up to the Swedish bakery for breakfast. One by one the guys emerged from their hostels and joined me on the porch of the bakery. We agreed that we should book our tickets to Vang Vieng for the next day so that we didn't have to worry about it, so after breakfast we wondered to the travel agents.

It was almost lunchtime by the time we had finalised and paid for the tickets after checking and double checking that the minivan was going to be a minivan and not clapped out old van owned by the local farmer. As the Liverpool crew went off to rent bicycles for the day, Tim and Matt mentioned getting a tuc tuc to the Kouang Si waterfall. I was keen to see more of Luang Prabang so I decided to hop into the tuc tuc with the boys. After a little haggling with the driver we agreed a price for our ride and set off on the road North.

The driver had told us it would take fifty minutes to get there but the scenery was beautiful. We passed through lots of small villages on the way each composed of wicker sided, straw roofed huts. Although they seemed quiet, children ran about playing whilst the women sat in groups all watching us as the tuc tuc scooted by. The mountains that skirted Luang Prabang looked as green and leafy up close as they had at a distance yesterday evening, but the fields less so. They appeared bone dry and the padi fields that were always depicted as being so lush on television were bordered with sand and yellow stalks. The road continued to wind further up into the mountains as I drifted off into a partial sleep. It felt like minutes later that I heard Tim yell 'Oh no' before being almost covered by a bucket of cold water thrown at the tuc tuc. Now wide awake I looked back to see a group of young children either side of the road with huge troughs of water, giggling with each other for having got us. Before I could gather my senses and put my camera safely into my backpack, I heard Tim again say 'Here comes another one'. I quickly crouched in the middle of the tuc tuc, but unfortunately this was the entirely wrong place as I got even wetter than I had already been.

We arrived at the Kouang Si waterfall about five minutes later where our driver looked at us, laughed and simply said 'Laos new year'. I knew for a fact that it was at least two weeks till the new year, but I was going to get wet here anyway so I didn't much care. We paid our entrance fee and wondered up the wooded trail towards the waterfall. We passed the bear sanctuary that was at the foot of the waterfall and stopped to take a quick look. The bears here were ... bears, one of only two species indigenous to Southeast Asia. Some had been rescued from cages or being performing bears and now seemed to be taking life very easy in huge leather hammocks. We continued up the forest path towards the first pool in the waterfall where people were paddling in the opaque water or soaking up the sun at the edge. We decided to head all the way to the top before we went for a dip and I was glad we had. The waterfall was beautiful, gushing over limestone that it had worn away at and sculpted over time. The pools were filled with rounded rocks just visible through the water. We climbed the rocks to the left of the falls and I wished that the pool below was deeper as I would have definitely jumped in. We headed back down the other side of the stream and pools till we came across the rope swing at pool two. We stopped for a swim and to dive into the sky blue waters. Tim and Matt went first and I decided to just go for it and bomb in from the top of the pool. As I climbed over the slimy rocks to the top I felt how cold the water was and it was freezing. I launched myself and bombed into the pool creating what I'm told was a huge splash. The guys and I took it in turns to take photos of us diving and swinging into the pool until we agreed it was too cold and began out wet walk back to the tuc tuc.

That evening we all met up and decided on having a traditional Laotian meal in a restaurant. After picking one of the many places that lined the main street we were seated around a huge table and given menus to share. I ordered a red curry with chicken and steamed rice which was delicious. The rice was light and fluffy and the curry had a hint of coconut amongst the spices that forced me into a cold sweat much to the delight of the gang. We headed through the night market to pick up desert from one of the bakery stands. After much thought I asked for a doughnut and was handed one filled with a green looking custard. No one was sure about it but I took a bite anyway and was pleasantly surprised. Asia has always been fond of deserts involving the sweet tasting red bean paste and this was it's counterpart green bean. It wasn't as sweet a a chocolate filled doughnut back home but was just as sickly and it turned a few faces as I offered the filling around to try. From here the boys and I headed off in search of a bar that they had been told about called Utopia. 

After wondering down some of the darkened back alleys of Luang Prabang we found the most chilled out bar I can ever remember visiting. The main bar was made from bamboo and led out onto a lawn filled with winding paths through the palms and bushes. We found a perch on a low slate stone table surrounded by equally low slate stone benches. It was a really beautiful bar with carefully places up-lighters of varying colours and retrieved tail pieces of bombs amongst the palms. Soft reggae was piped into the background as people played volleyball on the sandy court next to the lawn. We ordered a round of Beerlao and spent the evening advising each other on where to visit in other countries that we had been to. The night was eventually brought to an end as we were politely asked to leave due to curfew at 11.30pm and we made our way back to our hostels to pack ready for our journey to Vang Vieng the next day.

---