Indochina Day 7, Luang Prabang

Thursday June 3^rd

We started out this morning at 8:30 and walked to the Arts and Ethnology Centre. This is a museum celebrating the diversity of Laos and the numerous groups that live here. It contains clothing and artifacts for the numerous ethnic groups and tells of their history.

We were picked up there by a minivan that took us on an hour drive, on a fantastic motorcycle or bicycle road very much like the one around Ahmic Lake, to the Kuang Sii waterfall. Richard told me of a path that led up about 200metres to the top of the falls, so of course I had to do that. It was a good climb and with the hot humid weather I worked up a good sweat. There was a good view up there of the surrounding hills and the rainforest. After climbing back down I joined the rest of the group at the pool at the bottom of the falls for a swim. There was a rope swing on a tree there too, and that was fun. The girl in the photo is one of the people in my group, Patricia from Germany.

From there we walked to the bear sanctuary where a number of Asiatic bears have been rescued from poachers who sell them to the Chinese. The Chinese keep them in farms where they harvest the fluid from their gall bladders for some type of medicine. This is cruel and inhumane treatment and this sanctuary and others are trying to get the practise stopped.

Back to the entrance to the waterfall area to eat lunch at one of the restaurants there. Then we took the minivan back to our hotel. The rest of the afternoon was ours to do as we wished. I wandered around town checking about a couple of temples and the main street which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of the buildings of French heritage that date back to colonial days. Also walked through a couple of local markets, one of which was a food market. That's where the photo of the cooking fish was taken. I had dinner at a nice little restaurant on that street (see the bottom photo). Then I went to book an activity for tomorrow. I talked to a lovely young Laos woman who works for Tiger Trails, a local company with similar ideals to GAP. I was trying to book a cycling tour through the countryside, but no one else had signed up to do it, and they wouldn't run it with just one person. So, after a couple of hours of waiting to see if anyone else would join, I eventually opted for a hiking tour instead.

Then I walked back to the hotel for reading and blogging.