Luang Prabang

Laos was our next stop. Susan and I got to the airport in Siem Reap with plenty of time and enjoyed one last Cambodia beer. As we were finishing up, we heard the boarding announcement, and just at that time, a woman came up to ensure we heard the announcement. We assumed it would take some time for the passengers to load, so I ran to the bathroom quickly. As I was exiting, I heard Susan's name being called over the loudspeaker. Which means they were waiting for us. So I ran back to where we were sitting and we hurried to our gate. We exit the airport and make our way to the plane, at a little bit of a jog. We get on the plane and don't find many people at all on it. There was a total of 9 passengers. And they were waiting for us. Well we felt a little bad, and maybe a tad embarrassed, but then realized we were taking off much earlier than anticipated. So no worries. We took off, got some food, and had our first Laos beer in the air. 

No one in front of us.

We then landed in Pakse, Laos. We had about 2 hours, or so we thought. We figured we'd go through immigration and wait for our next flight. Well we got off the plane, were given a transfer ticket, and entered the tiniest airport waiting area. Not the tiniest I've been in, but definitely small. We determined that we'd be chilling there for a while, which we weren't too thrilled about since there wasn't much to do and see. We decided to get some beers. But as we were about to pay, they changed over the destination sign, and started to load everyone for Luang Prabang. So we got back on the plane we just got off of. We just picked up a few more passengers. I guess there was a reason why there wasn't any specifics on our layover. But we were ok with that since we arrived in Luang Prabang sooner than anticipated. And we saw an amazing sunset as we landed.

Luang Prabang sunset after landing.

Once we leave the airport, we then get ripped off. We decided to take the taxi into town as there were no tuktuks around, which was surprising. We tried to share with a couple, but they said maximum 3 people. So of course we thought we were going in a small vehicle of some sort. Nope. They pull up in a van and pile us all in there. And made more money. They even confirmed one stop. If we were paying for a taxi, then we shouldn't have had to share. I don't mind sharing. I just don't want to overpay. A short ride later, we got dropped off at the entrance to the road where our guesthouse was. We checked in, took a few minutes to decompress, and then headed out to check out the Night Market.

Night Market.

I really liked this particular Night Market. Instead of a building with stalls, it was a road that was closed off for the evening, with tents set up along the sides. They were selling a lot of the standard items I've seen elsewhere, and also local items. It was hard to resist shopping, but I've decided to wait a bit longer before I go to town on buying things. We also found some delicious food at one end of the market. We selected our food and got the price. And then told her what veggies we wanted. Once the food was ready, we went to pay and of course she tacked on extra money. Well we didn't pay since they didn't tell us it was extra, but it was still kind of sneaky. We sat down nearby and met a nice couple from Toronto. We hung out and chatted with them for quite some time. They gave us some tips and we did the same, as we are going a little bit in the opposite way. They were in Thailand, so they gave me some recos, and we advised them on Siem Reap.

Deciding on what to eat.

We wandered a bit more and then decided to check out some of the tour offerings. There were tours to Kuang Si Falls, an elephant sanctuary, and other places. We decided to think about it and come back the next morning to figure what we wanted to do. Susan really wanted to do the elephant sanctuary (which I was totally on board with), but I also wanted to be sure we had sufficient amount of time to explore Kuang Si Falls (one place was only giving an hour to explore). We decided to see if there was a good tour that would allow us a bit more flexibility. And when we came back the next morning, we did. We were going to have 2 hours with the elephants, and then 2 hours at the falls. Good compromise, and we'd back in time for the sunset on Phousi Mountain.

After some breakfast, we joined a few others in a shared minivan and headed to the elephant camp. It wasn't the Elephant Village that most tours go to, and I think this worked in our favor. First, this was much closer to the Falls, and second, it's a pretty new establishment (opened in January), so it was flexible on timing and how the morning went. When we first arrived, we got a briefing of the sanctuary over a cup of iced tea. We learned that they buy elephants from people who have captured them from the wild and have been domesticated. They wouldn't be able to survive in the wild for very long if that's where they returned. Laos now has a law that it's illegal to capture elephants, so hopefully this minimizes the number taken from their home. They currently have 14 elephants, 12 adults and 2 babies, in total in the sanctuary. We learned they eat about 250 kilos of veggies a day (this is equivalent to over 550 pounds), which is crazy.  We got to feed them, and I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't overfeeding them. So I continued to feed them the banana stalks. And feed them. 

Feeding the elephants.

After feeding them for a while, we headed up this structure to get on the elephant for a short ride through the jungle. We all got to get on our own elephant, which was great. We did a mini trek and enjoyed the beautiful views of the Mekong River and surrounding mountains. At one point, one of the elephants couldn't hold it any longer, and just had to pee. And wow did it gush out. It was kind of amazing. You know in a gross way. And I'm really glad that I was up high on my elephant. We left the massive puddle behind and continued on our way. At some point I lost Susan. She got on an elephant right after me, but my elephant was in a hurry and passed a few others. And I figured hers was taking their sweet time. Once my ride was over I was waiting for Susan to finish. But I couldn't see her. I then looked over to where the elephants were and she was feeding them. Apparently hers got a bit scared and returned to the camp. Her ride was cut short, which was a bummer. But it was made up later on.

Going for a ride.

We then headed down to the river since it was now time to bath them. The elephants were there by the time we got down the hill (Susan and I were busy taking photos). We dropped off our things and went into the Mekong to join the elephants. We were able to convince 2 others who weren't doing the bathing to take our photos. I had to hop on one, which did take some flexibility, but I made it. And then I spent some time washing the elephant. It was very cool. And I hoped the elephants enjoyed themselves. It was cooling me off for sure. After a bit more bathing, it was time to head back. Since Susan's earlier ride got cut short, she was able to ride her elephant back up to the camp, which was nice. She was thrilled to ride it bare back too. They weren't hurrying us out of there, so we fed them some more. I'm sure they had many more kilos to eat for the day. All in all, it was about 2 hours of hanging out. It was then time to head to Kuang Si Falls.

Time for a bath.

Since we were over our time, I was worried our time at the falls would be cut short, but it wasn't. We grabbed something to eat quickly at the bottom of the falls and made our way to the top. The hike was a decent one. I did it in flip flops and barefoot at some point. Not super easy, but doable. And we were rewarded with some great views. 

Top of the falls.

On the way up and the way down, we got some great unobstructed views of some of the falls. The water was so blue and falls were very pretty. We tried to hurry down the other wise when we were done at the top, but it was a little steep, so had to move slowly. Which means we didn't have much time for swimming. We really spent about 5 minutes in the water. I think if we had an extra 30 minutes, it would have been perfect. I'm glad we did the hike, but do wish we had some more swimming time. The group was waiting for us, so we had to move. 

Kuang Si Falls.

Once we got back to town, we did some more hiking, and this time went to the top of Phousi Mountain to catch the sunset. It was a bunch of steps, and not as high as our earlier hike. So not major. It was a bit crowded at the top, but we were able to catch a nice sunset. The one from the night before was better, but the views were still pretty great.

Sunset from Phousi Mountain.

We spent the rest of our evening checking out the Night Market again and eating dinner. The next day, we were heading to Vang Vieng. I got a nice morning run in along the Mekong (and saw a few other runners) and got some nice misty views. Luang Prabang is definitely a recommendation and spending another day or 2 there would have been nice. But it was time to check out our next destination.