Arrived late at night, tuktuk-ed to the city center cos it was too expensive to go straight to our accomm.
First thing upon reaching the city center: Laos' tutu kuey. Also, changed money finally, after leeching off Jingyi all these while.
Walked through the night market and navigated but got lost for abit until we leeched wifi from a hotel to check. Turns out it was just at the end of the night market! But it was all worth it as it's the most well equipped accomm we have till date, even had sports channel which we woke up at 1:45am to watch Liverpool lose their Europa League finals after our rewarding BBQ dinner at the night market (though they lost)
Even gave us a welcome yogurt drink after our long sweaty walk!
Also, at the recommendation of our host (and also probably every guide book for this place), we arrived back at the (initial drop off but opposite to our accommodation) end of the night market for the food section!
Not quite a fan of freshwater fishes but this Mekong fish at the right is quite nice. Part of the credit goes to the BBQ and the spices cos everything else was nice too (albeit some, like the duck, was too salty). Also, got scammed for this small bowl of vegetables in the middle, when we realize the next day that they actually go by per bowl and not weight! And look at the pathetic amount we took thinking we wanna scrimp on it by taking less. -.-
Woke up pretty early the next morning and headed for Kuang Si waterfall after the heavy rain subsided.
And this sumptuous breakfast before we go!
Got ourselves a private chartered tuktuk and no, he didn't change his dad to drive
Rain means muddy road and coupled with a soleless slipper means I slipped, good thing only once. Bear rescue center was a surprise find, with lots of Moon Bear (never knew this breed existed) buddies.
And this is me trying to fit in LOL
Up close and personal though all they really do is laze around haha
Swam in the icy cold waterfall pool with more bikini babe!
Bikini babes not shown but here's three hunks before we enter the legendary Kuang Si waterfall haha
We then headed back to our accom to wash up after a one hour journey.
And this amazing feat/feet was seen on our way back. Fucking impressive
Lunch at Syen Sabai was pretty steep but food and ambience justified its impressive online review, even lonely planet recommended it.
Climbed up to the Phousi Hill but didn't enter the stupa cos we're running short of budget, continued down to Dara market but didn't really walk around as it wasn't exactly very appealing.
And this is the "backdoor" bamboo bridge that saved us the hassle of going one big round round the main bridge (one end is our accom, the other is the main street where the night market is). It's gonna close soon when the rainy season hits though, and it'll probably be flooded. Apparently they wanna build a new one that's more sturdy and so they are collecting usage fees now during the afternoon. Hopefully our small contribution helped!
And while the view at the top of the hill wasn't all that impressive (just muddy water on one side and low-rise structures on the other), the journey along was rather charming, I must say.
Headed down to the National Museum but was closed so we decided to chill at a cafe for the next three hours before the night market opens.
Hmmm forgot the name of this cafe though we chilled here for quite some time haha. The brownie wasn't worth the calories too.
Stalls were sparse as it was raining so we headed for dinner first. Came back out and still not many stalls were operating, Pung and Phua still managed to buy some stuff while I haggled for them. Met a French-Isreali couple at the dinner and the French dude happen to come from Bordeaux, where Brandon visited (Xueer studied), and is also a dive instructor getting people to dive in Cambodia, so much discussion started after he initiated to try out our Mekong catfish. Day ended after we return to hotel to work out and we woke up early in the morning to witness the alms giving ceremony, where residents kneel by the street and monks walk down to ask for rice donation early in the morning at 530am.
Spiritually entertaining; only heard of monks going around to 化缘 in Wuxia novel, so this is the first.
Wanted to head to the morning market but it wasn't even fully opened so we passed and headed back for a nap. Breakfast and check out, then the famous Wat Xieng Thong before massage and chilling at Indigo Cafe (oh at least I noted it down here) once again.
Shiny~ especially under the unforgiving sun
And then more chilling at the hotel and off we go to Huay Xai.
I LOVED this! Haha partly cos I always have good experience with overnight transport that has beds but Pung and Phua thought otherwise (cos Phua had to share with a stranger while us at the back didn't have to squeeze, but Pung was too long for the length). Also shown in this picture is Brandon's "instructor" who we coincidentally met again after the excruciating stress episode earlier in our trip. We all still managed some sleep though so that was good!
