The bus arrived at the bus station for us two hours behind schedule. When my companions and I tried to find a place to sit, the only available seats were in the very back of the bus with zero leg room. Then our departure was delayed another 15 or 20min because the locals had to strap a refrigerator to the back of the bus.
The night bus. You can sort of makeout the refrigerator through the back window.
I was in fetal position for the entire nine hour drive as the back of the bus bounced around all the potholes in the road. Once we had a flat tire and everyone got out to stretch their legs, and another time we had to stop in the middle of the road because a herd a cattle were blocking the way.
We arrived at the Luang Nam Tha bus station about 6am and walked to the nearby Manichan guest house for a much needed sleep.
We woke up about 12pm, tried to schedule a trek from the Eco Center, but failed to get one for the next day. Then we chartered a tuktuk taxi, and went to check out an old bombed out temple called Pheom Phouk. Its remains have gone untouched, but they built a new temple just next to it. There was a group of four children collecting donations at the temple that we played a few quick games with and then decided to return to town and try the Eco Center again.
We got a jungle trek scheduled and then Suzanne and I walked 5min south of our guest house to an herbal sauna. So nice.
Herbal Sauna hut
We stayed there for about two hours going in and out of the heat and pondered the idea of getting a massage.
After deciding the massage will be much better after our jungle trek, we walked back to the guest house to meet the two Irish blokes and English lads, had a bite of dinner, drank a few beers, and went to bed.
Suzanne got up early and took a day trip to Muang Sing, so the rest of us rented bicycles and peddled our way 6km north of town to a local waterfall.
The hut where we took a breather after the bike ride.
Nick, Olly, and Enda cooling down.
We sat in the sun all day playing in the water, and eventually made friends with some of the young locals who were hiding at the top of the falls having a private party. The funny thing is they went swimming fully clothed. No bathing suits, just jeans, t-shirts, skirts, whatever.
They fed us homemade Lao whiskey called LaoLao and were very entertained with the chance to speak with some foreigners. We occasionally splashed each other with the cool refreshing water, laughed, and ate some kind of cucumber that looked more like a small melon
We eventually biked back to town to take a rest from the sun at our guest house and drink frozen lemon shakes to cool down. We then decided to walk down for another herbal sauna to prepare us for tomorrow long hike through the Biodiversity Conservation Center.
The trek will take a couple days and then we plan to head back to Luang Prabang (transportation currently undecided), so I'll get back to this in a few days.
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