Tag Archive: boat people


Bears of Paradise

Woke up and headed off for a quick breakfast. Our goal today was to visit a waterfall we had heard about from the guide book. We started haggling with a tuk-tuk and moved off from him, found another who would go for the price we wanted, but he wanted to find more people to make it worth his while. After like 20 minutes of driving around (and I am sure, wasting more money on fuel than he would have if he just drove us right away) we popped off in search for a new tuk-tuk. After the waste of time we settled for a different, slightly more expensive, but ultimately cheap tuk-tuk which got us to the falls 40 km later.

We bought a couple sandwiches from a vendor for a picnic later and headed into the park. It turns out there was a bear rescue place there with tons of bears. It looked like a really nice place for them actually and there we all these hammocks that they would lay in that looked really really comfy.

We got to the first pool of water and small fall and we were just taken back. The turquoise water described in the book was better than could be imagined. The water was cool, but comfortable. When we get around to getting these pictures up you will not believe it.

We checked out all the different falls and when it got to the first, largest fall Amy and Jen decided to go off to swim, while I decided to check out where a trail led. Turns out it led to the top of the fall, and it was one heck of a hike to make in flip flops. On the way down I ended up going barefoot just to get at least a bit of traction on the dirt. I ended up running into some boat people on my way up. They are everywhere. The view was nice, but maybe not really worth the amount of effort it took to get up there and down.

By the time I met back up with Amy and Jen I was just soaked in sweat and really ready for a swim. There was a rope swing and Amy teased me onto it… what a great way to get into the water. A brief swim, under the waterfall, a few swings and it was time enough for us to go back.

When we came into the room it took us only a second to realize something was off. Amy quickly noticed that the chocolates we on her bed (off of the TV where they were being left untouched.) The pyramid was open and wrappers were everywhere around it. It was very clear that some one was in there, which worried the hell out of us because for the first time ever, knowing we were going swimming and not wanting to leave our passports on the shore unattended we left them in the room along with our extra cash and other valuables. I had $200 laying on the nightstand, right in the open (stupidly.)

After a really thorough look through everything we realized absolutely nothing other than the chocolate was taken. No cameras missing, no money gone, no credit cards taken, no passports stolen… it is one of the weirdest break-ins I have ever heard of, let alone experienced.

We alerted the staff, and it was not easy to explain that some one broke in, took chocolate, nothing else, and then locked the door again on the way out. Then we went for dinner, valuables all safely back in our backpacks and bags on our shoulders. A cocktail, a crepe, and a massage later we were back to the room before curfew.

That was the wake up call. “Egg fried rice? Chicken fried rice? Buffalo fried rice?” It was an early 6:00 am start, still in the dark, no one knowing if we would make it all the way down today. Some rumours were going around that we would stop in Pak Beng, but then the guy said it was just to let the people get their money back if they paid for accommodation (nice twist.)

We got to Pak Beng, and people off loaded to go get their money back, 20 minutes later they returned (without their money… the hotels had no idea what they were talking about) and we continued down the river with renewed doubt. I have been sick the pack couple days. Sort of a head/stomach thing… not bad, but not making the trip any more fun either. It clouded over and it really didn’t seem like we would have enough light to make the distance we needed, and a lot of us really started expecting another night in the sand, and we didn’t expect this one would be as much of a party. All of sudden there was a massive cloud burst, rain came down in buckets and it was really beautiful. The smell of rain was refreshing and it was neat to see all the locals continue to work as if nothing was changed.

We pulled into Luang Prabang in the dark, it was not at all what we expected. Laos, the untouched, untouristed country; Laos, where the roads are horrible, and travel is a nightmare; Laos, where everything is less civilized, less western. Apparently not. There was a huge river side strip of beautiful restaurants, guest houses all over, the roads were better than back home… maybe it looked even better considering what we had slept in last night.

We happened across a nice place for what turned out to be a really decent deal. We showered, watched TV and headed out for food. On our way out, we saw some boat people (as we call anyone who rode the boat with us) getting off a tuk-tuk… apparently we had much better luck finding a place than they did. Then we found a restaurant, and there were more boat people. We had a crepe for dessert, heard some people who were at the restaurant comment “look, they are eating again already” and went back to sleep. On the way back it really seemed more like we were walking down a street in Victoria… like walking down around the cook street village or something.

Oh, and we had a small pest in our room… a little tiny lizard. He doesn’t have a name, but we did build him a house.

By the way, happy birthday dano!

Powered by WordPress and Motion by 85ideas.