Luang Prabang. Kuang Xi 310315

My trip in Luang Prabang was short and just a detour. Initially I just wanted to go straight from Hanoi to China after receiving my Chinese Visa but somehow the guy that couchsurfed with at ‘Vietnam Says Hello’ – Liam convinced me to go to Laos. He just arrived from Laos.  Why not? and I would tick another country in my list. The only problem was the bus would take up to 22 – 24 hours. I’ve never been on a train/bus ride more than 20 hours before. By distance it should not take more than 20 hours but because of the hilly mountain roads and the border crossings that would add up to the long journey.

I’ve arrived at Luang Prabang around 7pm and I met some new Japanese friends from Fukuoka and one of them Shuya was sharing a couple seat with me, which lasted for us to be next to each other for 24 hours. My main motive in Luang Prabang is just to see one of the greatest waterfalls in South East Asia and I convinced the Japanese guys to come along. They said they didn't know about the waterfalls. They were just heading to Luang Prabang and Vientiane the day after as they are almost to an end of their South East Asia month trip. So, we kinda teamed up to look for a place to stay for the night. We found a guesthouse next to the Mekong River for 80k kipp per night for two people. I shared the room with Shuya. The room was okay but the wi fi was really bad. I tried looking for Halal food here from what I have researched but it was not there. The only place that I can find was kinda far away from my place. But there was so many vegetarians food here – they are vegetarian friendly and the night market has good foods too. They would do sandwiches in a baguette – like the Subway sandwiches and it was good enough for me. And I ate a lot of that and the coconut food.

We went for the Kuang Xi waterfalls the next morning and it was about an hour away. The owner of the guesthouse also owns a Tuk Tuk and would charge us 50k Kipp per person one-way to the Kuang Xi waterfalls. I love waterfalls or nature stuff and I’ve been to a few in my country and I would say the view was breathtaking with the blue water and levels of waterfalls. By far this is the best one in Asia I’ve been too so far. And of course I just had to swim here. There are levels of waterfalls that you could go to and you could choose where to swim except for the top one which was restricted. They also had bears in the park– so be careful.

Besides that – the Mekong river was great to see and of course the temples which I didn't go too. The only transport to cross the river was the local long boats for the locals to cross, If you stay at the riverside, everything is in walking distance. I kinda like this place and would like to come back again someday. It is laid back, touristic – friendly and even though there was no halal food around there vegetarian food was really good especially at the night market. The Japanese guys only stayed for a night. I spent two nights here and the 3^rd day I had to leave early at 6.30am for my bus ride to Kunming, China. 28hours bus ride!!!