Day 47
The alarm needs to wake us as we aren't used to these early starts (8am, ha). Breakfast at the hostel has a little language barrier problem but it means extra food so I'm not complaining too much, though Lemon tea with ice cubes as kinda odd. At 9.30, our tuk tuk driver comes and gets us and we set off turning left, instead of our usual right and head off into the Laos countryside. The journey takes 45 minutes and makes me feel a little peaky with all the bouncing but the scenery is beautiful, the area is full of little farms and tiny creeks and I want to stop at every one. It's not long thought before we arrive at the little village, at the bottom of the waterfall park. It's obviously geared up to take all that they can from the tourists but they aren't pushy and it's only 20,000 kip (£1.60) each to get in.
We haven't walked 20 steps in before we see a moon bear in the distance, yes that's right a bear!! I forgot to mention that part of the water fall park is a rescue centre for moon bears who otherwise would have been sold to bile farms or for paw soup and it amazing! It's run by Free The Bears and it's really well laid out, there are fences but it's set out so you feel really close to the animals and they look really happy and content. The centre doesn't receive any money from the park entrance fee but you can donate to them there or do as we did, buy some of their merch. We picked up the awesome Keo bear and a cool tee for Ben.
We stay and watch the bears for ages before moving through the luscious forest towards the sound of running water and I'm amazed at how beautiful it is here. There are several waterfalls here in the park and a few that you can swim in and we jumped right in after the last few days sweltering in the town. The water is so cold but refreshing, I glide through until I hear Ben yelp. "What's up...aah! What is that?" We both look down to the weird nipping sensation at our feet to find a shoal of fishy having a right old nibble on our toes. Very odd but I know some people pay a fortune for it so it can't be bad. We carry on swimming and squealing before we decide to move to the next pool which is as lovely as the first.
After we are nicely cooled, we get dressed and walk a little further into the forest and find the biggest and most beautiful water fall of all here. It's so spectacular and Ben wants to see how far we can climb it, I'm a little more apprehensive when it comes to scrambling up rocks than he is but I said I'd push my boundaries here and I start up the hill side with him. It isn't long though before I've slipped a few times and over heated so I plonk myself on a log with all the heavy bits so the monkey can scoot up. Once the adventurer returns, and obviously says I've missed out on the best view (hmm) we make our way down the steep, slippery rock. I spend half of it on my bum as I decide I'd rather start on it then end which Ben thinks is hilarious and then he slipped. Ha.
Our way back takes us past the Bears, where we stay and watch a bit more and then off to the car park to find our driver. The ride back is as bumpy as the way here and my peakiness turns to full blown motion sickness and I muster up all my brain power to not vomit off the back of the truck. I luckily last till the hostel but feel rubbish and it takes me all of the rest of the day and night to recover.
Day 48
I wake up this morning so sore, I missed out the part in yesterday's telling where I slipped on a rock getting out of one of pools and jared my right arm and shoulder so today I'm doing my best broken robot impression and I can hardly lift it. We have breakfast at Joma bakery just off the river and we leave at 3. Seriously we managed to spend the whole day in an Air Conned bakery, it was torture as you can imagine. I had to eat at least 3 cookies, 3! The food was great and we both just got lost in our books and the web. Dinner is another market stall special but tonight I'm not feeling so good and it's not just my shoulder so we head straight back so I can be near a friendly bathroom.
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