Last day in Luang Prabang

Emilie was flying out at noonish, so we got an early start to pack in a lot of touristing (especially since we'd taken the previous day to be lazy bums during the monsoon rains). Also it was an early day because we had to rise at 5 to catch the six a.m.-ish "Alms-giving" ritual, wherein the town's monks (and remember, there are a lot of temples in this town) walk along the river road and collect food (mostly little bits of sticky rice, the national staple food) from devotees along the route. It's solemn and silent and rather moving, as well as quite visually rich - as you can see here.


After a quick breakfast, we chartered a boat to take us down the Mekong, to a village from whence we could hire a tuk-tuk to take us to a local waterfall park.


Here's the boat and driver. I tried out the "B&W" feature of my new (thanks Dad, Sue, Sean and Joyce!) camera on this shot, and I like its reminiscence of Vietnam-war era photos. I was thinking a lot of that era, as I have often throughout Laos because of the similar scenery and settlements, and especially as we were going down the Mekong. The boat was a baling-wire-and-bubble-gum affair, in which our driver lives with a toothbrush and extra shirt and that's about it.

It was cool to see all the different kinds of life along the river, a major part of the life for the city, from fisherman to ferrymen to long-haulers like this one:


Just about every tuk-tuk and boat driver in town had already approached us with "you go see waterfall?" and I kept imagining that there was this little waterfall in the forest, the driver takes you there, you get out, see the waterfall, say "wow" and go home. But in fact, the waterfall park is an extensive many-hectare nature preserve of sorts, with an extensive complex of waterfalls and swimming holes. I guess the dissolved calcium carbonates from all the limestone mountains precipitates out and forms multiple steps and formations, as well as turning the water this stunning sky blue.



So, we did see one big waterfall and say "wow", but we also saw many many smaller waterfalls and swam in them! It was extra cool, because, as we had to come early (and paid extra for the privelege) we were the only ones there! I think it's probably a lot different with hordes of dirty backpackers (I mean besides us) and white-bellied retirees milling about.

In fact we could jump and play all we wanted.


Also, this park had bears and tigers that had been rescued from poachers. Despite my officially disapproving of what seemed pretty substandard habitat, it was pretty darned cool to be so close to such a massive, magnificent tiger. Man, you should have seen him jump around and growl when we started taunting him as a "big pussy" and throwing jelly beans at him. Just kidding.