A Year In Indochina: Trek to the Kuang Si waterfall

Our weekend trek to the Kuang Si waterfall was both a good challenge and a good experience. The first day was a steady seven-hour trek through jungle to reach a village belonging to the Khmu ethnic group, where we stayed overnight in a 'homestay' bamboo hut. The walk was quite difficult due to the heat and the dry soil that slipped underfoot on ascents and descents, but the scenery was beautiful and, best of all, we never saw another foreigner nor any litter on the trail. Along the route we saw the results of the slash-and-burn agriculture that local farmers practise, leaving trails of smoking black land.

Our guide for the trek was Kia, a short man who was very professional. He is Hmong and comes from a family of eleven children, of whom not all had the opportunity to go to school. We were also accompanied by Ped, a porter and 'assistant guide'. Ped is a nice young lad who supports Liverpool FC- striking a chord with me- who was able to help me up hills over the loose earth, having a stronger foothold with his flat-soled, worn-out sneakers than I had with my running trainers. The two also cooked all our meals for us during the trip. Our first meal, lunch on Saturday, was produced from Ped's backpack about two and a half hours into the trek (on Jessica's announcement that she was hungry). Ped climbed up a slope to pick some large palm leaves and onto these several plastics bags containing pork, omelette, smoked aubergine, vegetables and chips were emptied. We were each handed a block of sticky rice (a Lao speciality) wrapped in banana leaf, to be eaten with our fingers with the food. It was great.

Sometime around four o'clock we arrived at the village where we would spend the night before continuing to the waterfall the next day. It was a comfortable place and seemed to be doing well- the kids who gathered around us looked healthy and the villagers were at home, not out in the fields, during the evening before sunset. On our arrival they were in the midst of celebrating a new house being built, a party that went on well into the night. The four of us stayed in a hut with beds laid out under mosquito nets. Down a little path was a clean squatting toilet and a tank of water for bathing, something that we appreciated after a long, hot, dusty trek. We were all happy with this accommodation except, perhaps, for Crystal, who was dismayed to find that we had not been provided with soaps and little bottles of shampoo.

The next morning we set off for what was to be a very beautiful three hour walk to the waterfall, stopping off to see a spring and a cave which was used for villagers to hide in when American bombs rained overhead during their secret bombing campaign on Laos during the Vietnam War.

We reached the waterfall feeling very tired and hungry. The view was spectacular and it felt like a just reward for the day and a half's walk. The place was packed with tourists who had arrived by tuk tuk to swim in the pools. We had time for a quick dip and a visit to a neighbouring bear rescue sanctuary at feeding time before it was feeding time for us as at a nearby restaurant. Then back to Luang Prabang by truck. Along the road children were preparing for the upcoming new year celebrations by tossing buckets of water over passing vehicles. This was simultaneously funny, a bit annoying and a great way to refresh ourselves.

Today Mum and I have had a lovely relaxing last day in Luang Prabang. We hired bicycles and did a couple of loops of the town, taking in the former royal palace and national museum, the UXO Lao visitor centre, Wat Aran and a couple of rest stops. It has been a long journey back to Saigon this evening, an end to a great trip that has taken us to many different sceneries. I think we have both enjoyed it very much.