Day 10 - Elephant Riding and Waterfalls

I slept surprisingly well considering I had to share a bed with my dad. Woke up today around 7 and went to eat some breakfast. The dinning area of the hostel was full of some of the weirdest people I've ever seen they were some sorta hippie hipsters wearing the most ridiculous clothes. One girl even had whiskers painted on her face...so confused. Breakfast was very small basically eggs and bread (typical for a hostel). We got picked up from the hostel at 8 which took us to the elephant camp. We drive with a newlywed couple from Mexico so I got to practice some Spanish with them. The elephant trek was awesome! There were about 9 elephants and since there were so many people I got to ride on the neck of the the elephant. 

It was really cool, the elephants hiked around for about an hour going through the river at some points. After the hike we were able to feed our elephant bananas as a treat. 

Once we finished with the elephants we drove back to the main village for lunch. I can't remember the exact name of the food but I had a rice and beef soup that was very peppery, which I'm told is a very common lao food. It was delicious!

After lunch we got picked up by another bus and made our way to Kung Si Falls. We met some more people on the bus who were from Holland and they had their two kids traveling who were adorable! Kung Si Falls are the biggest waterfalls in the area. On the way to the falls they also have a bear sanctuary so we got to see all of the bears which was pretty fun. 

The falls were  about a 5 minute walk from the bears and they were incredible! The color of the water was a surreal light blue. 

 

We were able to hike all the way up and over the falls which was a pretty steep climb but had some pretty cool views of the falls. 

The falls also had a rope swing you could use to jump it which was really fun but the water was ICE cold so as soon as I hit the water I swam as fast as possible to shore. 

-Swinging into the falls!

After about two and a half hours we left the falls and had some delicious crepes and shakes while we waited for our bus to leave. 

On the way back to Luang Prabang we stopped at what I think our guide called 'monk village' which was basically a small poor little village that we walked through where they tried to sell us souvenirs. We finally got back to the town at around 430. 

We had just enough time to hike Phou Si hill (big hill in the center of the town with some wats/temple relics). It was a short but steep hike to the top which offered some incredible views of the city. 

-Overlooking the town

-Temple type thing at the top

-View of the sunset

After chilling on the to of the hill and watching the sunset we made our way down and stopped at a restaurant called Lao Lao garden. 

The restaurant was super cool and we ordered the Lao BBQ which basically was like fondu but they put a fire and metal cooking thing in the middle of your table to grill the meat and cook the veggies. 

The food was awesome!! Along with vegetables we had beef, water buffalo (a Lao favorite), and chicken all of which were very tasty! 

After finishing our meal we made our way back to the hostel but decided to stop at the spa. The spa had a foot treatment that consisted of putting your feet in an aquarium of about one hundred fish and letting the fish eat the dead skin off of your feet! It tickled at first but it was definitely a cool experience and afterwards my feet felt pretty good! 

I took some cool pictures with the underwater camera that I'll post later! 

After having our feet chewed on by fish we made our way back to the hostel. One interesting fact I learned about Laos is that it is the most bombed country in the world! I never would've guessed. Tomorrow we are visiting whiskey village and Buddha caves!