Rather than just be driven to the falls, I booked a tour that started in a village and walked up to the top of the falls (and then back down to the lagoon pools you can swim in). Note to self: don’t be so organized and book the tour ahead of time on tripadvisor. You pay more money than just buying when you get there. They use what is called the single supplement. You pay more for a single ticket because if you are the only one on the tour, it is still guaranteed. When 2 book at the same time, the price for each is almost half!
We started out in the Khmu village which is one of the three predominate tribes in this area of Laos. Our guide was Thong (pronounced tung).
We passed through a school yard.
We then passed through the Hmong village, which is another tribe.
This woman is weaving a roof for the house which needs replaced every 2 years. To make it last that long she bunches 7 pieces together to tie.
A picture of their house.
From this tree they get rubber. It is trapped much like we do for maple syrup.
This is my friend Adrienne. We calle this the birthday rock in her honor, because it is her birthday!
They do slash and burn portions of the jungle to expand their farmland.
Along the way we tried various roots and shoots. This one is tasty and almost a hint of ginger. For stomachache.
This one is bitter and is used to cook with.
We saw coffee plants and their fruit.
Mango tree
We came to another village that was moved here from further up in 1996 in order to promote tourism to the falls. It has increased their livelihood and helped tourism in the area.
Here we had a snack and could pay to go to the Phawesi cave. This cave was used during the Vietnam War for people to hide during the bombing of Laos. Thong’s grandparents talked about many who died during that time. The statue on the right is the mountain spirit. These tribes do not worship in temples and use a local shamian for healing and religion.
We ate lunch near the spring that was constructed for the village to move here.
After a wonderful lunch, we continued on.
Soon we were at the top of the falls. Straight ahead is the edge.
Looking down at the lagoons below. Each is a different shade od turquoise.
Side view of the falls.
More of the top and the edge of the waterfall.
From here we had to climb down a path the entire height of the waterfall.
But the view from the bottom was spectacular.
A ficus tree.
We had over an hour to ourselves and decided to visit the Asian bears and the organization to save them.
They had an enclosure for little bears.
They had a separate one for the adults. Their face had a unique shape.
After purchasing a t-shirt for their organization to save the bears, we changed to go swimming in one of the lagoons. It is winter here so it was cool but worth it. There are fish in the lagoon that nibble on your feet. It actually is a spa treatment you can have here. They eat the dead skin cells off of your feet. It felt interesting.
After returning to town, we quickly changed and went to L’Etranger Books and tea to watch the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
Dinner was a Lao spicy eggplant dip (Tam Mak Kua) with sticky rice.
Very fun day.