Waterfalls & Sock Coffee

The line of stalls on the main street that sell the fruit shakes also sell cheap baguettes and coffee. We decided this would be a cheap breakfast as the hotel we were staying wanted to charge $10 each for breakfast (most of our rooms up until now had it included within the rate). I had a chicken & avocado baguette (stuffed with salad and some chilli sauce) and an ice coffee that was brewed through something that resembles a sock or a pair of tights (I had seen this on tv so it wasn't such a surprise). This cost 25,000 kip (£2).

Sticking to our previous trips we booked in a driver the night before to come and get us from the hotel to take us to the Kuang Si waterfalls. Unlike Cambodia, the driver didn't show up but we were quickly in a tuk-tuk and then in a Sawngthaew (a converted pickup truck). The journey was about 25km and took 45 minutes, we got there early to avoid the crowds that turn up mid morning.

It was great to see some water in the falls, as most of our visits over the past few years have been in the dry season when they are empty. The water was turquoise in colour (from the copper in the rocks), and there was enough water in the lower pools to swim in. We got to the third level, and went across a bridge that crossed the water. On the other side we started going up some natural walkways that were quite steep/loose on the foot. Tash decided she would never make it back down, and I knew that with my flawless record of ascending and descending steep sides I should probably keep going and see what happens.

It took about 15 minutes to get to the top, and I had to go across some other wooden boards and some water to get to the lookout point over the edge. The views of the surrounding landscape were great (see some of the pictures). Getting back down wasn't that tricky, I managed to figure out the bits I would have to get down lower on etc. It was great to jump into the water back at the bottom it was quite cold but really refreshing. We were treated to a free fish spa as there were fish in the water that liked to have a curious nibble if you stayed still for too long.

Through the entrance of the falls was a bear sanctuary, but we skipped this until we were heading back out. I think there must have been 10 or more asian /malayan sun bears in the enclosures that were designed to keep the animals active (it was set up by a westerner so the animals looked well). Inside they had tyres, hammocks and they hid the food in these and other places so they would hunt around for it.

Before we headed back we also had time to look through some butterfly gardens (ran by some dutch people). This was also very well done, and was probably the biggest concentration of butterflies I've seen.

Late lunch was an Indian (best way to get some veggie goodness, trying local fare always seems to mean some more meat!)

Dinner was at "Lao Lao Garden", I had some red curry with water buffalo which was good but the meat could have been anything! Also tried my third variation of beer lao (gold) - not really sure what the difference was. We went for more drinks next door and had a cocktail with the local tipple "Lao Lao a purple rice wine drink (tastes more like whisky which is another drink they make locally), grenadine, honey, ginger and lime.

Bowls of rice; 39
Lao coffees; 8
Lao temple count; 4