Adventures in Asia: Kuang Si Waterfalls, Laos

Yesterday I rejoined some friends from the slow boat for an excursion out to Kuang Si waterfalls.  We met for breakfast and then hired a truck tuk-tuk to carry us the hour or so west of Luang Prabang.

We arrived at the park around 10:00 or so.

Once through the gates, before you actually get to the river and waterfalls, there is a sanctuary for bears that have been rescued from the bile industry.

Despite the lack of good pictures of the bears, they were fun to watch, and it was interesting to learn so much about this awful industry that confines bears in tiny, tiny cages (barely big enough for them to turn around in) for their entire lives.  

Just a little past the bears you get to the river, which is lovely right away, so much so that I waded right in right here!

But if you continue up the river, it only gets more and more spectacular!

Eventually you get to the real highlight:

There are steep trails on either side of these falls that lead you to the top, and you can even continue hiking further on than that, but we stopped at the top.  On our way back down we stopped at this pool to swim.  The water was cold at first, but super refreshing!