Our Great Adventure: Day 75 2/12/2014

After breakfast at the French patisserie just around the corner from our guesthouse we joined the Heath family from New Zealand for our day's trip. Basically the guest house had booked a remorque and boat for us and then the rest was DIY which worked for us. We headed off west to visit Kuang Si waterfall which is about 30 km from the city. It was a good opportunity for us to meet Chris, Karenza and their daughters Emily and Grace. They've been travelling for 6 months and have been to North America, cycling around Europe and then on to South East Asia. From here they are heading to Nepal before returning to New Zealand in early January. We've actually seen them a number of times on our travels which Diane confessed to and then was concerned she'd given the impression we were stalking them! The waterfall is set in a public park which includes a bear rescue centre. We all walked up together with the girls being great company. The centre has taken bears from captivity and poachers and is trying to give them a better life although they will never be able to be reintroduced into the wild as they have lost the ability to hunt for food, evade danger and therefore survive. They all had names and short stories for us to read about. From here we headed uphill past multi tiered limestone formations with water tumbling over into green pools. You could have been on the set of a Disney film. You can walk (paddle) over the top of the main waterfall which we did enabling us to do a circular route before heading back down but not before stopping off for a swim in one of the water pools. The water was just the right temperature and along with Chris, Emily and Grace we were soon having great fun swimming around the gentle currents. Karenza kindly took some photos of us all in the pool. We had the area to ourselves and it was only as we descended back down past the other pools did we realise how lucky we were as these were all full of people, both tourists and Lao people taking advantage of their national holiday. After jumping in the remorque we headed back to the guesthouse for lunch prior to our afternoon boat trip only to come to a sudden halt as there was a moped on the middle of the road and a person next to it, with nasty head wound. Whilst we weren't first on the scene the other people saw we were heading back into town and helped lift the semi concussed man into our vehicle. With the girls now in the front, Chris and Simon trying to hold the chap to stop him being moved around too much and Karenza checking his pulse (thankfully it was strong) we went as fast as we could to the hospital. It took about 30 mins to get there. When we arrived Diane tried to find somebody to help but speed of response clearly wasn't a priority for the staff. Chris and Simon managed to lift the chap onto a stretcher and get him into hospital. He didn't speak any English but it appeared his shoulder was giving him most pain and whilst the gash on the side of his head looked bad, we were hoping it was due to head wounds usually producing a lot of blood. We went back to the guesthouse all reflecting that this is not a part of the world you want to be sick/or be in an accident and certainly for us reinforced our decision not to go on mopeds (also if there was ever an example of why you should wear a helmet then this was it). Simon popped to the local cafe to buy a sandwich whilst Diane was lucky enough to find somebody to play scrabble with but soon realised what a good player Grace was! We then headed down to the river to get a boat upstream to see Pak Ou Caves. The current is so strong that it takes twice as long to get upstream as it does return downstream, taking nearly two hours to reach the caves. There are two caves on different levels, set in the limestone cliffs and stuffed full of Buddha images. On their own they would have been a bit of a disappointment but along with the boat journey and the company it made for a good afternoon trip. On the way back we stopped at Ban Xang Hai for the customary shopping trip. By now it was quite late in the afternoon and we were the only tourists in the village which was starting to close for the day. We had a stroll along the main drag to the temple and then headed back to the boat to return to Luang Prabang watching the sun set as we headed west. In the evening we had planned to go to a restaurant we'd seen last night however it was full with a tour group. Emily had told us about how good the yellow veggie curry was at the Coconut restaurant so we decided to head there and try it out for ourselves. Emily was right - it was delicious and great value. All in all a very enjoyable day, amazing scenery and great company. It was a real pleasure to spend the day with such a lovely family.