Dreams Are Hopeless Aspirations, In Hopes of Coming True

It's in the moments when things don't go to plan that you realise how fortunate we are as people 90% of the time.

Although there have been a few issues (mostly with my navigation) whilst I've been on my travels, it's often important to consider how lucky I've been in the last two months. Since arriving in Asia I've largely completed my 'business' without too many issues.

That's not to say I'm not aware that there are many things which can and might to awray, but particularly when I quibble over minor issues I have to be extremely thankful for making it this far.
Life in general often likes to throw you a curveball, and it is impossible to imagine that you could go for a long stretch, at home or abroad, without too many moments of misfortune. To complete the entirety of my journey with things going just as I planned them would need everything to fall into place perfectly for a third of a year - it would be naive to think this possible.

As I have discussed before, it's in the moments when things don't go to plan that your true personality comes to the fore, and being away from home when these moments occur often it sometimes makes things a lot more difficult than they would usually be.

Admittedly there are lots of things you can do to make sure most things run as smoothly as possible; checking my hotels carefully, making sure I have my flights reserved on time and ensuring that I'm being sensible with my money are just three of the many things I have jurisdiction over

There are, however, things which are completely out of my control...

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It looked as if the storm from last night had subsided this morning when I got up for breakfast, but there still appeared to be some water on the ground and moisture in the air so I guess that the temperature hadn't risen back up to what it had been yesterday afternoon during my long walk down the Mekong.

I haven't had an early morning like this one since I clambered out of bed at 4am on a humid morning in Siem Reap to go and see sunrise at Angkor Wat, but this morning I set my alarm in order to beat the crowds to Kuang Si Waterfall which is perhaps Luang Prabang's number one attraction for tourists.

I'm actually quite surprised this was the first waterfall to make it onto my agenda, but I guess that having stayed away from the beaches in Thailand and not having ventured too far from the city in Vietnam, it wasn't like I had missed the opportunity to visit any that had come up on my itinerary.

I'd researched various ways to get to the waterfall last night and decided that the best way to get there might well be to hire a moped and this way I'd save getting fleeced out of money by an overcharging tuk-tuk driver or run the risk of having to wait for ages whilst other people came along in order to split the cost.

Kuang Si is about 25kms from Luang Prabang itself and considering I haven't seen a bus since I got here, and as I am not aware of their existence I was having to spend a little bit of my Kip in order to hire a motorbike for the day.

Having watched how the traffic situation was yesterday, I figured this would be a much simpler process than riding around in Bali, and it certainly wouldn't possess the danger of being in Vietnam although it's always worrying because 'foreigners' who do take the the road are usually the target of the police in Asia who like to 'fine' them for frivolous things. When I was in Thailand, Kevin and I, got our bikes chained together by the police because apparently we'd parked on the wrong side of the road (there were no signs stating that there were certain places you had to park on that particular day, although we were surprised there was lots of space in the main city centre area of Phuket where we'd chosen to park). We had to go to the police station and after paying our 'fine' the policeman (if he even was one) put the money straight in his top pocket and then said one of his colleagues would arrive later to unlock the bike.

Scams relating to transport are unfortunately a common thing in this part of the world as often mopeds or bicycles aren't in perfect condition when you hire them, and it's important to check very carefully to make sure you don't end up on the thick end of a repair bill. I arranged this through my hotel so I was figuring it would be a little bit safer, and although they kept my passport as a deposit and the agreement I'd signed saying that the insurance to pay for a lost or written off bike was $2500 I was feeling glad when I eventually hit the road at about 8.10am.

It was only late last night that I decided that a moped would be the best way to travel to Kuang Si and I decided to be pro-active and pack my bag before I went to bed, but clearly I wasn't thinking straight when I picked it up and left as I'd forgotten to think about a coat or any kind of jumper which was terribly unwise considering I'd actually have described the weather as cold when I left my hotel.

I soldiered on through the goosebumps during the first ten minutes of my drive, but felt a few spots of rain on my head as I turned right onto the main road towards Kuang Si.

The sky ahead of me looked reasonably bright, and rather than turn back and waste time I figured that I'd just plough on and eventually the sun would come out.

Riding along the road to the waterfall was very remenicient to heading to Angkor Wat as there were very few other vehicles on the road.

The route takes you through a few small towns, but there wasn't much more going on than a few people out in the street preparing their shops and a several locals going about their business in fields and on work sites.
Some beautiful scenery guided me on the way for about 40 minutes as low hanging cloud intresected with the hills which were rolling in the distance.

I wanted to stop and take lots of pictures, but I was desperate to beat the rush there and take advantage of the fantastic sights I'd read about rather than delay myself further and risk it being already crowded with people.

I wasn't planning on actually swimming in the waterfall when I got there, but I was looking to take plenty of pictures and climb all the way up to the summit to get a great view of the surrounding area. If there was a chance then I figured that it'd be good to witness the waterfall's starting point which I'd read at the entrance when I eventually arrived was in a cave somewhere.

The weather had brightened up a little and as it was early and still pretty miserable there weren't too many people around as I paid 2,000 Kip to park my bike and 20,000 to enter the waterfall area itself. As you went in there were two paths, one which described itself as the 'trekking path' but considering the weather earlier and the potential for it to be really messy going that way I followed the road until I came to a point where the two intersected and from there I was treated to my first viewing of the fantastic Kuang Si:

As well as being incredibly peaceful, and almost entirely empty, the one draw about the waterfall was the fact that it appeared to be an aquamarine or green colour rather than clear or blue like you might expect. It was actually a great look for the waterfall, and had a great impact on producing some excellent views from a variety of different angles:

I knew this was only just the beginning, and continued back up the path until I reached the second part of the falls which appeared to lead directly to the third pools:

This was also a beautiful part of the falls, but it soon became clear that the best was yet to come as I walked towards a large wooden bridge with a few people standing on it:

Standing at the base of the waterfall, I was taken aback by how fantastic looking it was:

It appeared to come from so high up, and the colour again stood out amazingly. The water dropping down into each section seemed smooth and gentle although there was a constant hum as the liquid from up high splashed down on the rocks below.

I'd read online that you can go to the top of the waterfall, and in someone's comments they'd made reference to the 'left path'. They could have been discussing the point at the entrance where I took the road over the scenic route, or it could have been related to this one, so just to be certain I headed to the left (the opposite direction to everyone else) and started climbing bravely up towards the top.

As I did so, I heard a few loud cracks of thunder and the foliage all around me started to become wet as it rained lightly down onto the trees below.
I appeared to be heading away from the waterfall, but we took a turn to the right shortly after I started to get concerned and all of a sudden I could hear the water bouncing off the rocks at a deafening volume:

Walking through a bunch of trees and up an actual set of steps (which I hadn't seen since the bottom) I came to the top, and pretty much the second I put my foot up there the heaven's opened and I was forced to attempt to find some shelter against what I hoped would be a brief rain shower. Some of the people who I'd gone up after were standing under some shelter near a source of water at the top...:

I figured there would be something around near where they were, but couldn't see a way to get across until I found this sign:

'Go Straight' meant tackling this:

Considering I was wearing my trainers and already getting a little bit wet from the rain I decided to go for it and after pivoting my left foot on one rock and nearly sliding into the water with my very next step I made it across to where they were to discover they'd taken up all the good places to shelter. Looking back across at where I had been, I saw that there actually was a little hut in a clearing close to where I was, and I decided to head there, going back across the path I'd just come across (which was not even more dangerous) I scampered under the hut and waited for about twenty minutes.

One of the people from across the other side of the 'path' came to join me, and we stood there until the rain had almost subsided. I was pretty wet as it was and it sounded as though it was just drips of water through the canopy coming down onto the ground so I decided to continue back along the path and head towards the cave which I'd seen signposted earlier:

I probably walked about 200m before the rain started pouring town twice as heavily as it had done originally, and I decided my best bet was to just make it back to the shelter and wait it out again if at all possible.

By now, I was absolutely soaking wet through, and standing there for nearly 40 minutes my clothes were beginning to get to that awful stage where they stick to you and it feels disgusting and cold when they touch you.

The rain didn't seem to want to stop, and although I hadn't found the waterfall's starting point I considered how long I was going to stand there for before it began to lightning as well as thunder and rain. I felt like climbing down might be a good idea, and then at the bottom I'd have a better idea of what was going on.

Looking down from the top of the waterfall I could see people at the bottom with brollies up so figured that considering I'd seen the waterfall itself and got some great views from the top. Now might be a good time to return as there was a break in the weather.

There were some other people who I'd recognised as coming in around the same time, or just after me, and I think that considering it was about 12pm, I'd spent a reasonable length of time exploring all that the waterfall had to see.

Pretty much the second I went out the exit and got back to the bike, the rain stopped, the humidity started to come back and my clothes started to dry.

Considering it was quite a long ride back to Luang Prabang, and I'd already spent roughly half a day there I didn't get too annoyed at the weather had conspired against me, and hopped back on my moped ready to make a move.

The scenery on the way back was just as stunning on the way there, and pretty much as soon as I got back and got dry, I decided I wanted to take some of this in by attaching my GoPro camera to the moped and then going on a bit of a ride in the same direction to the one I had just come from.

Having unsuccessfully tried to wrap the camera around my handle bars in Cambodia and settled for attaching it to the straps of my bag, I had to use the same method here intertwining the feet of the tripod in a combination of my bag that would feel comfortable and be steady.

I probably headed about half the distance back towards the waterfall before turning round, and although I didn't get all the way there I think it gives a reasonable perspective of what I was seeing along the way:

This time when I got back I took a shower, quickly changed back out of my now dry t-shirt and decided to make a trip up to the stop of Wat Sen as I'd heard it was a good place to visit at sunset. Last night there were too many clouds for me to see sunset properly, but amazingly considering the weather had been so bad, it was actually quite a clear evening.

Wat Sen is a temple at the top of a hill essentially in the middle of Luang Prabang. It overlooks the night market, and indeed the entrance to it is the only space set free from all the stands and stalls.

From the bottom of the hill you can see the gold stuppa high up above, and after paying to get in I set about heading up all 191 stairs on the way to the top:

When I got there the view was pretty exceptional almost instantly. On one side you could see the river which already had the sun sparkling off it:

And on the other there was a rather panoramic view of the rest of Luang Prabang:

There were already quite a lot of people up there, even though sunset was about 45 minutes away so I found a place to perch and looked out over the river as the sun got lower and lower:

By Lao standards it was very packed up there by the time the sun headed behind the hills for the evening, and I stayed a little extra to get some pictures from the good spots which had already been taken up when I arrived.

I climbed back down pleased that my last day here had finished in the same way my last day in Phnom Penh did.

Having eaten in the city a couple of times already I thought it was time to mix things up and found a restaurant right on the riverbank.

The sun had totally disappeared from the sky, but I could see the pink shadow of the sun bouncing off the Mekong and I sat peacefully high above the river as it flowed smoothly.

It was a very good way to end my stay in Luang Prabang which has been action packed from the moment I arrived. I still stand by the 'sleepy' description I gave the city when arriving, but it has done plenty to avoid being 'asleep' and just become laid back.

I feel like it is still in its infancy as a tourist city, and I actually think that's been very beneficial to the way in which I have been able to relax and enjoy myself whilst here.

I definitely could have spent more time here had I had the opportunity as there are plenty of other attractions which should be taken advantage of in this fascinating city.

Don't Go Chasing
TLC (1994)