Luang Prabang 2

smile!
Pose!

Luang Prabang sometimes looks really European, with the French influence and the cosmopolitan atmosphere it would feel like we are sitting in a European city in the summer, as preet sipped on her cappuccino and i a papaya smoothie (for my tummy!).

After asking around and going on recommendations we thought that we would check out the even more impressive larger waterfall, about an hour from the center of town.

hmmnnn...its high up here!

So we joined a group already going which worked good for us as it was cheap!

This is on a bridge at the foot of the waterfall.

The view from the top of the waterfall

At the waterfall there was a bear sanctuary and rescued tiger named Phet, there is some good work going on there as the bears were rescued from being used as street performance animals or in bile farms where bile would be extracted from the bears through open wounds and the tiger would have been used for ingredients in Chinese medicine.
But thankfully the animals were doing great when we saw them, not sure about the tiger is she was apparently 'sleeping'.

Phet the little (well, she's very big now)

A short walk and were at the foot of the waterfall, a great cascading waterfall which fell into the bluest of pools, which fell into a another pool which went into another and another....

The view from the top of the waterfall

Seeing that there was people really high up the fall, we decided that we had to go and join in the fun so we trekked up the mountain about half way up the fall, after taking in the views we saw that there were people swimming even higher so Preet decided for us to trek up there too, what a trek it was, going through the jungle, over slippery rocks, through rivers and over felled trees, but the views were worth it.

But, the big But... we over shot where people were swimming so decided to come down the other side, so we came down slowly keeping an eye out for the access to the pool, but we never found it so sadly we came all the way down without finding the access. Oh well!

Some gorgeous flowers at the waterfall park.

Our German Parents...

While out having dinner we met a nice German couple and got chatting, as we wanted to change guest houses they recommended the one where they were staying, so we walked with them to have a look. Klaus and Dorris, were staying just out of the main area in a quiet guest house for $15 a night in a room which had Ac, Cable tv and was quiet and big so we checked in the next day. We told them about an indian restaurant in town so went there for dinner for one night too, where we learnt a little about Jehovah's witnesses and Dorris's hate for cats!