Tuk-Tuk Knows Best...

Luang Prabang, Laos

July 14, 2007
N 19°53.486
E 102°08.302

During our walk the previous day we heard every tuk-tuk driver offer trips to the waterfall. “A must see,” they all said. I guess when you hear something enough times you start to believe it. So, we figured we had to see the much hyped waterfall. We negotiated a rate with a tuk-tuk driver who roamed around in front of our guesthouse and he said he would be at our place the next morning at 9:00 AM. Perfect.

Our tuk-tuk driver was waiting for us as we walked out the door at 9:02 AM. The plan was to pick up another couple and stop at a local village before the main event, Kwang Si Waterfall.

After our driver made a quick stop at the local temple for his daily prayer, we stopped at a small village where they sold handicrafts. The crafts were sold by young children most of them girls from 3-7 years. On a few occasions the young children were barely able to walk, too young to talk, but they were holding up the handicrafts and pushing them on the tourists.

Little boys ran around rolling bicycle tires with sticks, others pushing long sticks through the hard dirt; imitating their fathers plowing rice fields with their water buffalo and wooden plow. We thought of kids at home around their age; worried about getting the next Nintendo or PlayStation, not money for their next meal.

During our drive up the mountain to the waterfall we passed lush green forests, perfectly terraced rice fields up the side of the mountain and small villages with a dozen thatched roof houses and children running around naked. The countryside of Laos is different than Vietnam and Cambodia because of the numerous mountains which are visible from every angle.

We didn’t expect much from the waterfall. Yes, we heard it was a must see, but after waterfalls in other countries, including our own, we think we have seen the best of the best. We walked through the gates of the waterfall, a popular picnic place for locals (similar to the one in Cambodia), and headed out on the 10 minute trek to the falls.

Before we even reached the falls we came across a cage filled with Asiatic Black bears. The bears were saved from poachers who believe their organs have medicinal value. After we watched the bears play for a few minutes we walked closer to the falls; however, we didn’t get very far before we met Phet, an Indochinese tiger, also rescued from poachers. We loved the signs all around the tiger’s cage—“Danger. The tiger bites.” “Don’t put fingers in fence.” Uhhhh…. No shit!

We finally started up the trail toward the falls. We reached a small, crystal blue pool of water with a small fall trickling into it. “This can’t be it,” we said to each other. We kept walking and came to another pool of water, just as pristine as the first. Both of these pools were labeled “swimming areas” and there were several picnic tables in the area. The majority of the tables were still available since it was around 10:30 AM.

We kept walking up the path still expecting more. About 100 meters later, we saw the real waterfall, a 80 meter drop into another aquamarine pool. There were bridges stretched across the pool of water for optimal viewing and small foot-paths leading to the top of the falls.

We decided to follow one of the paths even though Marc said waterfalls don’t look like anything from the top—think about Nevada Falls or Vernal Falls in Yosemite. Yes, good point, but I was out for the exercise after a few days of being under the weather. Marc was right, the view sucked, we told others coming up, but they still had to see it for themselves.

After our climb to the summit of the falls we headed back down to one of the swimming areas for a dip in the water. The water was actually cool and Marc commented that it was the coolest his core body temperature has been in over a month. We stayed in the water for awhile enjoying the break from the humidity before climbing out to dry off.

We relaxed at the pool for several hours chatting with a couple that shared the tuk-tuk with us; a French lady and Swiss man. After several hours of relaxing and watching the local children play in the pools we were ready to head back to Luang Prabang. However, the couple was obviously very relaxed, still had at least a half a pack of cigarettes each to smoke, and were generally enjoying themselves.

At around 3:00, and down to their last 2-3 cigarettes, the couple decided to jump back into the water. We told them we would meet them at the park entrance—we were going to get a sandwich. We just finished our sandwiches when they finally exited the park to the relief of our driver, who was obviously ready to roll.

We made idle chit-chat with the couple before we arrived back in Luang Prabang. They asked to meet us for dinner, but we gave them a very non-committal response—not because we didn’t like them, they seemed like nice people, but after a day in the sun, and two packs of second hand smoke, we were ready to relax and cool off some more.

The trip to the waterfalls was definitely a must see in Luang Prabang; tuk-tuk drivers always know best.