{"id":2713,"date":"2026-03-03T01:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/cr\/?p=2713"},"modified":"2026-03-07T05:58:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T05:58:36","slug":"mon-2nd-mar-luang-prabang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/?p=2713","title":{"rendered":"Mon 2nd Mar – Luang Prabang"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CR: As we have four full days in Luang Prabang we feel compelled to tick off some classic tourist activities. The most obvious one is a trip to the famous waterfall an hour outside of town. At the base of the waterfall is a bear conservation zoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CR: Private travel to the waterfall is x4 the cost of booking yourself onto one of these vans. In hindsight, it was probably worth quadruple the price. We are stuck up the back of the bus and there is no ventilation and the seats aren’t even screwed in properly. On the trip back we arrive to the van early and avoid the back. Halfway back the van has to stop because the girl at the back thinks she is going to faint.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Thankfully I saw the Revenant last night and am well prepared for this exact situation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Please stop buying Caitlin bile everyone. They are extinct in the wild and only exist in zoos and banks these days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Kuang Si waterfall is impressive. There is the waterfall itself that cascades into a series of pools. Some of these pools you can sort of swim in, but it mainly consists of backpackers awkwardly sitting around the edge dangling their feet in as if they are all petrified of getting wet and having any fun.
CR: In contrast, we don’t really get wet either and are also unsure if we had any fun.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: I was hounded for a romantic photo. It only looks like I am gritting my teeth in this photo. Everyone knows I am a romantic at heart. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Up the hill the locals have tapped the waterfall and use it for free water for all manner of downstream things.
CR: The bounty of nature.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: There is a 500 step climb to the “View”. When you get to the top you discover the “View” is a cafe that is elevated up off the ground by another 10m and actually has the view. Entry to the “View” costs (a small amount of) money. There are not many people in the “View”.
CR: Bait and switch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Once you are completed with waterfall you must return to the carpark by the allotted time and find your van from the dozens of identical ones. The driver implies he will not wait for you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Breaking news! China #1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: Walking around town in the evening we see a disturbing number of old white men holding hands with tiny Laotian ladies. To be fair, just one is enough to be disturbing. Key giveaways that reveal the date is paid for: man wears Haiwaan shirt; lady does not look him in the eye; lady clearly does not speak English and man has to resort to basic chit chat such as “cooler now in the evening”. I hope these men are making generous contributions to their villages as reparations for plundering the natural resources.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: Sun setting on Luang Prabang. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: My attempts at asking for the bill in Laotian at the restaurant go horribly wrong. The waitress repeats what I say (“Thao Dai” – this is a proven line we have used many times before successfully) a few times, then laughs (more of a humiliating titter), nods her head passively and then goes off. She does not return with the bill and evidently never will. We have no idea what happened in the interaction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waterfall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thailand-laos-cambodia-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2713"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2840,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions\/2840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}