Luang Prabang Day 10
Chilly Mornings, Pleasant Afternoon
We woke up early this morning to cold weather! It must have been about 10 C. Very shocking to the system. We had until 1030am today so had a leisurely breakfast of fruit, baguette and coffee. The coffee was thick and I made the mistake of adding “milk” to it. Well, the “milk” was thick too and very rich that made my stomach turn upside down! We concluded they probably used condensed milk. Anyhow, I recovered enough for us to go to Tamnak Lao Restaurant to sign up for the evening cooking class. Sandra and I were looking for ways to use up our kips as it is nearly impossible to exchange them back to dollars or yen. After signing up, we rested a bit and then met Toi for our tour of the day.
Today, the highlight was the Tat Kuang Si. It is a beautiful multi-tiered waterfall about 30 km from the city. The drive to the waterfall was beautiful where we passed small villages, schools and many farms. We also passed my first teak forest and also saw the military practice shooting targets! (no pictures allowed though). Also, during the ride, we learned more about Toi and his family. He lost his father when he was only 12 years old and his mother brought up the family while working as a high school physics teacher. He has an older sister who is a teacher, a younger brother who is in university studying computer science and a younger sister who won a scholarship to study medicine for 9 years in Vietnam. His mother is now retired now that all the kids are established. Toi is helping out his family.
People working the rice field. I really wanted to take a photo of the military practicing but was told "NO!"
We arrived at the entrance of the waterfall after about 30 minutes and then did the short trek to our first stop that is an Asiatic bear sanctuary. The bears were rescued from an illegal market in Laos where they sell the bears to China for their gall bladder. I made a small donation in yen to help the cause and also bought 2 T-shirts for Billy and Jackson.
The road to the waterfall park.
The bears are so cute. Some call them Moonbears.
We then headed to the falls, which was beautiful. The water was turquoise as it is natural spring water from the mountains. There are many swimming pools but as it is cold, no one was swimming. We visited the different tiers of the waterfall, ending at the grand 100-meter plus waterfall.
The Kuangsi Waterfalls
After taking lots of photos, we walked down a different route surrounded with the most spectacular poinsettia trees. Some were about 10 meters in height! How apropos to be surrounded with poinsettias as we enter Christmas season.
We were to have a picnic lunch, but instead, Toi arranged a lunch for us at a fabulous Lao restaurant in town. It was delicious! We had rice noodles with veggies, bamboo and chicken in coconut curry and fish steamed in bamboo leaves. Dessert was fresh fruit with mint tea. We were stuffed! Since we ate around 130pm, we could not figure out how we are going to eat our dinner at the cooking class!
Fish steamed in bamboo
Fabulous curry
Lao version of Pad Thai
We then headed home for a rest. Toi offered to have the driver take us but we were so stuffed we decided to walk. After resting for a couple of hours and also packing as we have to take a morning boat up the Mekong the next day.
At 430pm, we headed to Tamnak Restaurant to attend our cooking class. It was fun! First the instructor showed us how to make 4 dishes including the Luang Prabang chilie paste. Then we had to decide what to make. We decided to make the Fish with Smokey Eggplant soup, the pork salad and the chicken and pork in coconut sauce with chili paste. It took us only about an hour to make them all and it was fun and delicious! We could not finish our meal though as we were still stuffed from lunch and headed back to our guesthouse for an early nite.
Fish Soup with Smoky Egglplant
Pork Salad
Chicken and Pork in Coconut Sauce and Chili
Steamed Veggies with Laotian Chili
Display of the food we cooked
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