December 4, 2014
A day trip to a waterpark: Fun for everyone
Dea and I had originally planned to take a different route south from Suzy and Dino. They needed to get to Thailand within a few days, and so were going to bypass Vientiane to the west, and go straight down. Dea and I thought we might go east first, to see the Plain of Jars, and then ride down to our intended destination of Vientiane from there. That was until Adam pointed out how very mountainous that route would be, and Sebastian and Delphine told us about an amazing waterfall the other way, and I noticed that we could just as easily go the same way as Dino and Suzy and then cut across to Vientiane along the banks of the Mekong, thus seeing this waterfall and avoiding the mountains. At the last minute then, we chose to follow Suzy and Dino for a little while longer (something known in the trade as 'pulling a Gabor')
Before heading for the waterfall we made one last sortie into the centre of Luang Prabang to stock up from the French bakery. As befits our status as cycle tourists we bought only baguettes, the cheapest thing on the menu, and then simply stood in the street eating them whilst the more well-to-do tourists sat and sipped coffee and ate pain-au-chocolat and tried to pretend we weren't there.
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The 30 kilometre road out to the waterfall was not particularly difficult, except for one very steep climb on which I snapped a very interesting photo in which my own considerable stress at this ascent is very evident. Dino can also be seen struggling and straining at the pedals in the background. And in the middle is Dea, a picture of calm tranquility.
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A little village marked the location of the falls and then we had to pay a small fee to enter, but this fee was certainly worth it. The first thing we came to after passing through the entrance gate was a collection of moon bears, so called because of a crescent shaped white mark around their necks, that had been saved from poachers and lived in a protected enclosure here. But we were all sticky and sweaty from cycling under the hot sun and so we quickly said goodbye to the bears and sought out the first area of waterfalls for a swim. And after following a trail through an area of rainforest we emerged out at our desired location and I was a little stunned by what I saw.
My first impression was that it didn't look real. It looked like a waterpark that had been artificially created. There was a big tiered waterfall at the far end of a big turquoise pool which had a few mangroves or bamboo or whatever growing in it here and there. The rock that the waterfall was made from was a biege colour that vaguely resembled plastic and it all seemed too perfect to have been created by chance. Yet what really made it look like a waterpark was all of the bikinis and bronzed bodies of young western tourists that stood on the waterfall like they were on spring break. Maybe they were on spring break. In December. I don't know. On the road we had seen almost nothing but tuk-tuks carrying tourists and, well, here they all were. It was the most we'd seen in one place, and there was no sign of any Laos people anywhere. But the location was impressive, and we jumped in to cool off all the same.
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Leaving the crowds we walked a little further up the trail and came to another pool of turquoise water, this one being almost empty and actually a much nicer and more natural spot. "We should have swam here!" we all said, and not wanting to live a life of regret I said "well we can" and I dived right in.
I swam over to a rock on the far side of the pool, which I climbed up onto. Beyond the rock was a whirlpool of white-water that was coming down from another big waterfall. From my position on the rock I could look through to this waterfall and see only the nature of the water and the forest around, without anyone else intruding. It was a beautiful view and I enjoyed a few moments alone looking at this and thinking serene and happy thoughts. Then Dea arrived and joined me on the rock and we sat and enjoyed a few moments together.
I should point out that by the time the above photo was taken by Suzy, our faithful friend Dino had also arrived onto our rock. But seeing that Suzy was going to take a picture of us he kindly got out of the shot by diving into the water beneath us. I therefore cannot help looking at that photo without being reminded that, despite the appearance of a tranquil scene of young lovers, there was in actual fact a long-haired Maori man splashing around and half-drowning in the whirlpool at our feet.
But the delights of the day did not end there, for we dried ourselves off and continued walking up until finally we reached the top and saw the really big waterfalls. For me this was one of the few genuine breathtaking moments, seeing those cascades of water for the first time literally stole my breath from me and for a while all I could do was stand and stare with my mouth ajar at what lay before me. The water seemed to be flowing down straight from the sky, straight from heaven, and it flowed and fell in criss-crossing patterns of white, over interesting and unusual rocks and even some particularly resiliant trees that had somehow grown up between the torrents of water. The force of the falls was so great that we were sprayed with a fine mist even some distance away, but it only added to the magnetism. We stared and stared. Then we tried to capture the image on two-dimensional silent photographs and failed completely. You really had to be there.
Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 34,466 km (21,403 miles)
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