Monday 23 Jan 2017

As our flight left at 5 pm we spent the day getting sunburnt by the pool. Siem Reap airport is very small and our flight actually left early so we arrived in Laos as the sun set over the mountains. It was a short taxi ride into town and our small guest house and rather utilitarian room right next to the night market. Tomorrow we shall explore the town.

Tuesday 24 Jan

We spent the day wandering around Luang Prabang, a designated UNESCO world heritage site. It is a pleasure to walk along pavements that are clean and clear of bikes and shop goods. The scenery is quite spectacular with majestic hills bordering the Mekong as it flows past the town on one side and the Nam Khan River on the other side merging together. The weather is beautiful sun all day and when the sun sets a nice balmy evening to enjoy a beer sitting on the veranda. The sunsets are spectacular viewed from Mount Phi Si, a 100 m high hill in the centre of Luang Prabang. It is a lovely walk up through woods and past temples to the summit.

Wednesday 25 Jan

Today we hired a scooter to take us around Luang Probang. We had a little difficulty at first as they tried to give us a small Honda bike, but Chris really wanted to try the Automatic Scoby Scooters that use around here. An hour or so later than planned we zoomed off on our little bike. We needed to buy our slow boat tickets for our trip tomorrow up the Mekong to Pak Beng so we had to find the slow boat dock about 9 km out of town. After a few wrong turns we managed to find it and bought our tickets. Then we were going to bike about 30 km in the opposite ditection to Tat Kuang Si Waterfalls, a three tier waterfall west of Luang Prabang. Our trip was uneventful through green luscious countryside along a reasonable road with a few potholes here and there to catch the unwary and wooden slated bridges crossing rivers flowing down from the surrounding hills.
We parked the bike at the case of the town and walked up through the valley to the waterfalls, which were nothing like I thought, the colour was amazing so blue with a milky tinge created by the soft white silt along the sides and bottom. People were allowed to swim and paddle in the pools at the base of each fall. At the top there was a spectacular waterfall cascading down the hillside. It was very lovely and pleasant to sit and eat our lunch alongside the pools.