Introduction

I'm currently travelling across a few countries in South East Asia - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. With only time, limited money and zero plans made, let's see where this adventure takes me! In my previous post, I talk about exploring the small town of Luang Prabang, Laos.

I plan to write about the majority of my activities, experiences and thoughts throughout this trip not just for my future self but for anyone else interested as well.

On Day 7, we rented a bike again and went to explore the outer areas of Luang Prabang. From Kuang Si Waterfall to Pa Kou Caves for a full day on bike.

Kuang Si Waterfall

What can I say? This place is a physical manifestation of heaven on earth.

It was about an hour bike ride out of town. The best thing about travelling around by bike is the independence it provides. We could take any detours or stops we wanted to enjoy the view.

We rode through some beautiful rice fields on the way to Kuang Si

So, this is an important thing to note for anyone visiting Kuang Si waterfalls. Most people will only hike up to this point where this majestic waterfall is. The thing is, you can hike further up the hill to the source of the waterfall. It's mostly a singular path to the top, but then you'll reach a junction. The sign says turn right to go back down and most people I've talked to on my trip so far do that. What you want to do is turn left.

You'll see these set of wooden stairs that is half covered by the waterfall

It's a great place to get a massage and also practice your meditation poses for the Insta stories

Once you get to the top of this path, you'll be greeted by what can only be described as a fairy tale land

This part of Kuang Si was way less crowded than below because not many people know about it. We spent a good chunk of time here

We went back down into the main pools to get our free fish cleaning treatment on our legs. Swam towards one of the strong waterfalls to get our backs massage and to practice focusing on our meditation. I've got tons more photos that I don't want to overload in this post. If you ever meet me in person, I'll be more than glad to show you.

Pa Kou Caves

After the whole Kuang Si waterfall experience, we decided to drive 2 hours the other direction of town to Pa Kou Caves. To be honest, not really worth visiting but the ride there was definitely an experience.

We drove through the factory areas of Laos and I was really surprised to see that most, if not all, of the factories were owned by China. After the factory area, we got into a construction area with poorly built dirt roads. Not the easiest to bike through but at least we had some amazing views as well.

I really wish this picture captured even half of what I saw. We literally had to press our brakes as we turned the corner and saw this view

When we finally made it to the cave after the whole ordeal of going through bumpy dirt roads with a lot of construction trucks going back and forth. It was quite picture worthy, but not really worth the effort of getting there. The bike ride was really really difficult.

You'll know you've reached the caves when you reach this village

The caves were full of local kids begging for donations and candy. Which made the experience even less enjoyable

It was raining very heavily while we were waiting in the little village and visiting the cave. We never expected how bad the dirt roads would be when we tried going back. It was slippery, our bikes kept getting stuck, I ended up covered in mud. Fun and memorable now but miserable at the moment.

I was laughing and trying to take a photo for a good 5 minutes before realising he was actually stuck

My slippers were a casualty of the ride back. This is actually after my best efforts of cleaning it

Ending our Luang Prabang Experience

Since we rented our bikes for 24 hours, we decided to just jump on a random highway and drive as far as we can to see where it will take us at night. Somewhere along the highway we bumped into a local bar. When I say local, it was really local. Eyes were on us going into the bar, there wasn't any English menu and none of the waitresses spoke a word of English.

It was a very cool experience seeing how the locals enjoy their time in their local bars. Families brought their children. There were a lot of loud music and drinking for sure but every table was covered with all types of food as well. And the music - the Laotian rock music that the live band was playing were actually pretty good.

When the night ended, it was really difficult trying to get our bill. They didn't know what "bill" meant, and when we tried the international hand gesture for "bill", we suddenly had a plate of deep fried pork ribs served to us.

Key Takeaways

1. I've said it before, I'll keep saying it again. Biking around is honestly the best way to get to know a country well. It allowed us to avoid tour groups and really get to where the locals eat, drink and party.
2. Luang Prabang and Laos in general, definitely worth coming back again and again. It's a beautiful country, it's so relaxing and the people are super nice and chill.
3. If you ever go to Luang Prabang, find this nice old lady. We were only there for under 3 days but had her fruit juices at least 6 times. They're half the price from the usual market and double the size.

You'll find her on the main street - Sisavangvong street - towards the temple and bamboo bridge area