I wake up with no sign of last night's market buffet causing me any stomach problems. It was all vegetarian so maybe the fuss I made was unnecessary. Yesterday, Rachelle and I enjoyed Kuang Si falls so much that we agreed to go again if the weather was nice. A quick check outside and she gives the green light for swimwear. This time we decide to go early, in hope of beating the crowds.
A short walk down the street and a Tuk-Tuk driver offers us a ride at 30,000 Kip each. This is what we paid yesterday and it's a good deal. He tells us that the price is cheaper because he has four others waiting to go - the price goes down the more people there are. We jump in the back and are supposedly going to pick up the other four passengers. Forty minutes later and there are no passengers. This frustrated Rachelle and I, because the idea was to get to the waterfall early. We complain and eventually he tells us we can go with his friend in a mini van, which has ten others going in it. We renegotiate the price at 20,000 Kip each and hop in the front. No one is in the back and I get agitated again. Five minutes later the others show up. Finally we can go. Before we set off the driver says, "you pay now! You pay now, it's okay". We refuse bluntly. The idea is that it's a round trip, so giving them the money up front would leave no incentive for the driver to wait for us at the waterfall if he felt like driving off. The group of ten pay half each as a compromise, but we get away without paying anything yet.
When we arrive at Kuang Si, we think it wise to go to the pool that gets busy - the one with the swing rope and waterfall you can jump off.As hoped, only two people are at the pool. We spend a lot of time there; we jump off the waterfall holding hands, I do my front flips off it and we take pictures near some bamboo that grows out of the water whilst small fish nibble at our feet. When the crowds inevitably arrive, we head up to the large main waterfall to have another look.
Something we didn't notice yesterday was a trail leading up to the top of the waterfall, which I found surprising because it's a long way to the top. We decide top go up it - Rachelle in flip flops and me in bare feet, struggling through the heat on a steep dirt trail to the top. It seems to take forever and when we near the top, some Australians warn us that the water at the top has leeches in it. I'm not okay with this. I'm afraid of leeches. I know they are fairly harmless and just drop off after taking some blood, but I don't like the idea of them. When Rachelle and I get to the top, I am too afraid to cross the water to go down the other side, so we go back the same way. I wasted half an hour for us both.
On the way down a huge jumping spider lands on my foot before jumping again into the leaves next to the dirt trail. Already feeling uneasy from the leeches, it freaks me out a bit, but I'm also glad to have seen it. After reaching the bottom again, we dip in the quieter waterfall pools before heading back.
The evening was spent in a cafe, then restaurant and then two bars. We tried a bar called hive, but Rachelle didn't like the toothpaste tasting cocktails. So instead, we went back to Lao Lao Garden bar from last night. Then it was bed time.
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