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| 1. Kuang Si Waterfall
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| 2. Hmong tribesman
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| 3. Rice paddies
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| 4. The Mekong River
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— Index —
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One morning, we hired a van to take us to the Kuang Si waterfall. It is about 30 km south of town on a good dirt road. There is not a great deal of water passing over the waterfall, but it falls from a good height over a series of ledges and pools. It is quite beautiful, but it was difficult to photograph, as there is no place from which you can see the whole falls. Many tourists were climbing around at the base of the falls (see photo #1, at left). There is a path up the hill to the middle level of the falls. When we were almost to the top, we found that the path was blocked by a fallen tree. Coming back down the slippery hillside was a challenge.
On the way to the waterfall, we stopped at a Hmong village. The people here live in traditional Hmong houses, built directly on the ground. This is different from the elevated houses of the Lao people. There were a few people in the village, but most of them ignored us. This man was smoking a cigarette using an elaborate holder that is actually a water pipe (photo #2). Mostly, several young children followed us around with small bracelets they wanted us to buy. They were very insistent, and quite angry that we weren't interested. We tried to buy some cloth from one of the women in the village, but could not agree to the price she wanted. We eventually gave up and went on to the waterfall.
As so often happens, getting to the waterfall and back was the best part of the trip. We traveled along the Mekong River, through fields of rice and other crops (see the panorama at the top of the page). In early August, the rainy season was well advanced, and most of the fields were planted with rice (photo #3). The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, with the rice paddies in the foreground and rainy mountains in the distance. Bamboo, water buffalo, and living fences added to our enjoyment of the trip. Again, we were pleased to have hired a car, as it allowed us to stop whenever we wished to enjoy the view, and to take photos.
It had been overcast and rainy for our entire trip. Jamie frequently had to hold an umbrella over Jim to keep the camera dry while he took these photos. Even so, we had a great trip. We returned to a hazy view of Luang Prabang and the Mekong River (photo #4) as we decended from the hills south of the city.
— return to the 2004 Journal Archive
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