After arriving in Luang Prabang from Nong Khiaw, a swarm of tuk tuk drivers were waiting to pick us up and overcharge us. normally if a tuk tuk is filled with more than 4-5 people the cost would be lower but the drivers were insistent on trying to rip us off by overcharging us and i did not liked it a single bit. So i walked away by myself and walked about 15min along the main road before i got myself a tuk tuk for 5000 rather than 10000kip. Yes it's small money and sometimes i question myself if it's worth the trouble and the little money saved. For most toursits they would like fuck it just pay and we can all be on our way. However i disagree because it is about the principles and these drivers are greedy and give themselves a reason to overcharge just because we're falangs. By paying it means one is agreeing to their behaviour of overcharging and they would just contibue to do so when the next group of tourists arrive. I would rather walk 1km away from the bus station and allow my money to be earned by another driver who is honest and not interested in ripping you off.
Enough of rambling and let's see what i've been doing here in Luang Prabang which IMO doesn't really live up to it's tag of UNESCO heritage site. rented a single gear china bike on the first day with the intention of visiting the waterfalls 35km away. Didn't realise I've been cycling on the wrong route. What made it worse was i ended up on muddy dirt tracks and after 3hrs i decided to turn back knowing I probably took the wrong route andit was getting dark. Heaven didn't really help my cause when it decided to send a heavy downpour and also the chain kept falling out from the vibrations going over the rocks. Sometimes shit happens but sometimes it is just part of the experience.
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| the mekong |
The next day got a motorbike and went to tat xe and kuang si waterfalls proper.It had been raining in LPB for 3 days and today was no exception. Decided to not wait out the rain and it turned out to be a good decision as it wasn't raining after riding 5km out of the central area. 1st stop was at the elephant camp and as usual they were all chained up and it seemed that one of the elephants was crying. Tat Xe was not very impressive probably because it was the dry season and the showers apparently weren't enough to increase the gush of the water. Kuang Si was very nice with turqoise coloured waters due to the limstones. Trekked up to the top with 2 german guys and we came down last so that we could have the swimming area all to ourselves when everyone had left the site.
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| Tat Xe waterfalls |
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| Kuang Si waterfalls |
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| View from the top |
