Tat Kuang Si

We slept in again this morning and woke up to a cool, fresh morning in Luang Prabang. It has rained (or poured rather) every night since we were in Pakbeng, and it really makes a difference with the weather. We had a late breakfast of banana pancakes & crepes and Lao coffee before heading out to Tat Kuang Si, a beautiful waterfall with many tiers, set in a lush jungle. It is only about 30kms from town, but it took nearly an hour because the road is unpaved and windy. While walking along the path to the falls, we stopped in to see Phut, an Indochinese tiger who lives in the park. She was confiscated as a cub from poachers, along with her two brothers. The brothers died, but she survived and now lives happily caged in a huge jungle enclosure. Her name means 'Diamond' in Lao. Feeling brave from our experiences with tigers at the temple in Kanchanaburi, we put our hand through the inside cage to pat her while she lay sleeping on the floor (she was leaning against the bars). She gave a small grumble when Kel pat her, but it could have been a happy purr. She is softer than our last tiger pals, probably because she is clean and not full of sand. And she is beautiful.

We spent a few hours at the waterfalls, first hiking up to the top and stopping at a few tiers along the way. We managed to lose the trail coming down and became real jungle trekkers, swinging from vines and Kel falling down the slippery hills. We had a dip in the bottom 2 pools, the water cool, clear and refreshing. The water is turquoise, probably from the limestone rocks. On the way back to our truck, we stopped off to see a family of Asiatic Black Bears that live in the park as well. We're not really sure how they got to be here, but they're well taken care of and are reproducing as well. There is a cub only 5 months old along with 2 teenagers, a few smaller ones and 2 big ones. We got to pat them through their cage bars. Their paws are so large and warm. They were having fun playing in their stream and one climbed to the top of a huge tree in their enclosure. We stopped in for one more peek at Phut before heading back into town.

We did some laundry, had a hot shower and headed out for some dinner. We then met Barry and Tim for a few Beer Laos before the bar kicked us out at their 11:00 pm closure. We said goodbye to them a second time, but we may hopefully meet up again in a few months when we're all in Lima, Peru.