Caves and Waterfalls in Luang Prabang

When we woke up at 7 am I think we both realised that booking a day trip after a 2 day journey down the Mekong was a bit ambitious as both of us were feeling more than a little bit tired the next day. Nonetheless, being the troopers that we are, we got up, had a swift breakfast and went down to meet the others who would be joining us on our trip. We were marched down to where the boats were and again it dawned on us that we would have to go on yet another boat for about 2 hours to get to the caves. Note to self: never book a trip when you are feeling very hungry, tired and therefore not thinking straight. The boat we got on was about a metre wide and 3 metres long, holding 8 people in total. The trip in itself was quite an experience as we all thought that this thing would fall apart any minute now. Thankfully that wasn't the case. We were dropped off initially at what they called the Whisky Village which came as a surprise, given that this wasn't on our itinerary but we went with the flow and checked out the village. Sadly it was really a mini village that was designed for locals to sell their bottles of whisky (with lizards and snakes inside) and scarves, so neither one of us really felt like we wanted to be there. After an hour we finally got back on the boat and headed down to the caves, which ended up being some caves that we passed by on our journey the way before from Pak Beng.

There are two caves - one is situated up some windy steps and is known as the 'Big Cave' and without a torchlight it was rather difficult to see a lot inside it! There was a buddha and some offerings in front of it, and that was about it. Down we went to the small cave, bypassing some young kids selling little birds in cages as it was apparently good luck to release them. I thought it was really cruel, and buying them would just make the kids catch more birds, so we hotstepped it to the smaller cave to check it out. This one was filled with thousands of little and large buddha figures, as people would come to the cave to pray and leave a statue inside. It was interesting but to call it a cave was a little far fetched. However, we both appreciated that this was an important place and that people made pigrimages to the cave in the old days, so all in all we didn't feel that it had been a complete waste of time. We took in the lovely scenery again as we made our way back to the mainland, and by this point both of us were worrying profusely as we were meant to be at the agency at 12 o clock and it was already 12 30 pm!

Back in Luang Prabang we grabbed some sandwiches and our swimming gear and ran down to the agency who luckily said that we would be picked up by the minivan which would take us to the waterfall. One thing we learnt about Luang Prabang is that time means little to them, so there is never a need to panic because you will eventually get to where you need to be. In the mini van we were all quite cosy (there were 13 as opposed to the 9 that are meant to be in the van) and endured a rather bumpy ride up to the waterfall. However, when we made it to the falls we were both very glad that we made it there as they were absolutely beautiful. The main part of the waterfall was about a 15 minute walk from the main gate and when you make it up there, they are a lot bigger and higher than either of us imagined them to be. The water was a baby blue colour and as you walk down, there are certain pools that the public can swim in. We chose to swim in the largest area which had a rope that swung off a tree so that you could launch yourself into it, which was a lot of fun! I wish we had the photo to hand so that we could show everyone, but that will come (when we find an internet connection that's fast enough...)
Around 5 pm, happy and exhausted, we all drove back to Luang Prabang town and Leon and I had some dinner (vegetarian stall food which cost us a quid each) before heading to Utopia, which is a restaurant/bar place that quite a few people had raved on about.

Utopia itself is worth mentioning as it is set quite far away in a residential area, and as you walk inside you are greeted by low tables, recliners, a sandy volleyball court and an impressive view of the Mekong river. It was full of travellers and deservedly so, as I could imagine that a lot of people come here to chill out during the day and party at night. We ended up playing Giant Jenga (and currently hold the record of the highest number of levels) and met some nice people from Brighton and Norway, and ended up at the infamous Bowling Alley that is the only place in town that is open past 12 midnight. Luang Prabang has a curfew for everyone, which is midnight, which means that everyone who wants to stay up later ends up going to this bowling alley. It was raucous, packed, and full of neon lights. I have a rather hazy recollection of it but I remember NOT getting to bowl and talking to a lot of random people who we kept bumping into in town. All in all it was a fun day, and at 3 am we sheepishly knocked on our guesthouse door so that they could open up and let us tip toe off to bed.