I awoke to the sound of rain, quite an intense sound of rain. In fact the skylight in my bathroom was leaking, and every time I sat on the toilet, I got rained on. I had been anticipating hot weather in Laos, and don’t really have the clothes for rain. I couldn’t believe it, what kind of good Southeast girl gets stuck without her jacket? But I didn’t let the rain stop me, and off I was.
I spent the morning reading the paper and enjoying a nice cup of Laos coffee. Once the rain died off I followed the crowds of Laos people to the temporary market. From what I could figure the regular market was closed for renovation and the vendors has taken up along a back street. Rice, noodles, chicken, fish, buffalo, seaweed, peppers, mint, frogs (alive), some kind of rodent (dead), wood, ginger, cooked food, raw food, underwear, dried fish, fruit vendors, just about everything you would need to make a proper Laos meal was there. I followed the market until I ended up at my street. I went home, changed my clothes, and got ready to throw water. There was a group of people on my street that had set up a tarp and had been playing music throughout the night. They were still going strong when I headed back out, and I sat and listened for awhile as the women started to set up for a potluck the neighborhood was having. Back out into the street I met up with some people I had met the day before. We ran around throwing water on various people, who threw water back at us. The rain started up again, and I went off in search of lunch.
After lunch, I arranged a ride to the waterfall outside Luang Prabang which I was told not too miss. The rain was coming down hard, and about twenty minutes into the trip I was wondering if I should have listened to all the Laos people who told me not to go because it was raining. The tuk-tuk driver pulled over, and put up a tarp to help protect me from the rain, but he was still quite exposed. Then came the thunder, but we continued on. About ten minutes later the rain stopped and the sky cleared. The scenery was beautiful. About an hour later we arrived at Tat Kuang Si. On the way to the waterfall you pass a cage with a tiger and another with Asian bears. All of these animals have been rescued from poachers. As they are too dependent on human care they cannot be released into the wild. While it was sad to see them there, I think it is a great educational opportunity that they should develop a bit more than just having a few signs and asking for donations. The waterfall itself is beautiful. It is actually a series of small waterfalls that flow into limestone pools. The water is cool and clear. Many of the pools have a turquoise hue to them. I walked up through each area of the waterfall, until I got to the main waterfall, with a more dramatic descent and amazing limestone formations.
I was just starting to get warm, and was worried about whether or not it would rain on the way home, so I opted not to go swimming and instead just sat with my feet in one of the limestone pools. There are several pools that you can swim in though, and one has a vine that you can swing on out into the pool. One of the smaller tiers of the waterfall has a cave behind it that is suppose to be fairly interesting.
The weather held out for the rest of the ride home, and I got back to Luang Prabang very grateful that I had spent part of my last day at the waterfall. That evening I met up with the three people that I had rode in the truck with to the Nam Lik, and had gone kayaking with. We had a great evening chatting and eating dinner.
Saturday morning I was up early again. The musicians in front of my guesthouse had packed up there instruments and moved out into the main street, which was a bustle of activity. The whole street was closed off, filled with all kinds of vendors, and people celebrating the New Year. I walked along the street for some time, and ended up drinking coffee outside a café watching a woman sell eels out of a white porcelain bowl.
I walked down to the street that followed the Mekong to meet the tuk-tuk driver I had arranged to take me to the airport. As I left, Laos airlines dribbled scented water filled with flowers on my shoulder and wished me a New Year. The flight back to Vientiane was only about forty minutes. I spent the afternoon in a café watching people throw water before catching my bus across the border and back into Thailand, and then another bus that went overnight to Chiang Mai.
