Let’s go cycling

Day 19.. off the bikes!

The laziest of days… a leisurely breakfast and walk the couple of km into town for an explore. It feels like an entirely different country to the one we’ve been traversing for the last few days- no subsistence living here, it’s a beautiful mix of colonial architecture and Lao style wooden homes.

Somewhere around 70 restaurants and a huge array of food options from Lao to Western. We found a nice little riverside spot for lunch and indulged in a whole fried Tilapia- delish!

Day 19- Kuang Si Falls

Back on the bikes. We waited…and waited for the heavy rain to ease off so we could head out on the 50km round trip to the falls. Eventually gave up waiting and set off in the drenching rain- it didn’t let up until we were well on our way home again!

The Kuang Si Falls are simply breathtaking. Fall after fall and all spectacular. We were soaked through and cool so we didn’t feel too tempted to jump in but the water was beautifully clear and would be very inviting if we weren’t already saturated! It was pretty quiet early on, perhaps because of the heavy rain, but by the time we left there were plenty of people on the tracks and in the water.

Wandering through the night markets is fascinating- so many different cultures and languages in one little spot. We reckoned there were around 30% Caucasian, with probably 85% of those French speaking, a few German and maybe 1-2% English speakers. Lots of Chinese and Thai. Didn’t spot any Ozzies here. Quite a few families with young children- it does seem like the sort of destination you could happily travel to with little ones.

A Lao feast for our last night in Luang Prabang- sensational mix of textures and flavours and all very local- we found most of these in the markets afterwards.