Hello Steemians!
You can find part one of this post HERE
After spending a few days relaxing and then taking the boat trip up the Mekong we decided to book a tour to Kuang Si falls and the Laotian Sun Bear Rescue Center. The falls are some of the most famous in the area of Luang Prabang and are absolutely beautiful cascading pools of turquoise color water. I also really enjoy seeing how other countries set up their animal rescue centers so visiting the sun bears was a must for me. We booked the afternoon tour so we spent the morning drinking coffee and watching the river flow by before heading to catch the bus to the falls.
These Bears Are Huge!
The first stop was the Sun Bear Rescue Center, which is right next to the waterfalls, to check out the bears. I was blown away by how big they were, I have seen pictures of sun bears and imagine them to be around the size of the black bears we have in Canada but these things were the size of brown bears. They really are beautiful animals, they are black with a golden stripe across their chest and seemed to be very comfortable in the protected forest around the falls. The center was established in 2003 after local authorities seized three cubs from poachers who intended to sell the bile in China. The process of extracting bile from a live bear is incredibly painful for the animal and always leads to a slow and painful death, the pictures are graphic so google it if you dare. We got there just in time for the feeding, which was interesting, they put the fruit inside plastic balls and tossed them to the bears individually so they could play around and eat.
Off to the Falls
After checking out the sun bears we headed to Kuang Si falls to check out what everyone told us were the most beautiful waterfalls ever. Well they did not disappoint at all, they are some of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen! Walking up the trail you are first met by beautiful turquoise pools that are cascading down from the main falls ahead and serene nature all around you. There is a large pool that everyone swims in and the water was the perfect temperature to just relax in. After swimming we headed up to the falls proper and decided to try and hike to the top before our bus left. This was a mistake. We got about halfway up and it started pouring down cold rain and the trail turned to slippery muck instantly. We slowly made our way down, completely soaked, to find the bus driver looking for us because everyone was waiting. Oops! We made it back the bus and we were really only 10 minutes late so we apologized to everyone and off we went back to Luang Prabang.
Our whole time in Luang Prabang was some of the most fun I had in all of Laos, everything is just so peaceful here it is heard to to feel completely at ease. If you have never been then I highly recommend adding it to your list, it should not be missed! Thanks for reading!