Tad Sae and Kuang Si.
Kuang Si
TAD SAE
The smaller of the two Falls, Tad Sae is located within a Forest, giving the impression the land is flooded by small rock pools of water, cascading over the limestones to the larger turquoise lagoon below.
Visiting Tad Sae was part of a tailor made package from a local travel agent, where we cycled the rough dirt roads for roughly two hours through town to the Nam Khan River, which we then kayaked down towards the Falls.
This activity as a whole cost us 400,000 kip each (which is roughly around £34), but the travel agencies offer various packages best suited to your tastes, plus you can always haggle for the best price.
Ours included a personal tour guide, stop-off to Phannom village (which is famous for it's weaving and craft production), the kayak tour down the River to the falls, the entrance fee, lunch and kayak tour back to town.
In total, the tour was roughly around 4-5 hours with a well spent afternoon taking a dip in the refreshing falls and of course, partaking in an instagram-worthy photoshoot!
KUANG SI
Kuang Si is the larger and more popular of the falls amongst the tourists and backpackers.
As we visited Tad Sae first, we had planned on enquiring at the same travel agents for a trip here, but were lucky enough to encounter a local tour guide with a bus-like tuk-tuk who was taxi'ing tourists to the falls and back for a price.
This may sound slightly bizarre and unsafe, but backpacking in Asia is all about the haggling for a cheaper price, and the various random ways you can bag a tour or an activity just by taking an innocent stroll down the street.
As I was haggling with the gentleman, I (for reasons unknown to myself) offered him a deal that if I could fill up the tuk-tuk bus of 8 people, he would take us for 200,000 kip each (£18), wait for us and bring us back.
So, myself, Roisin and a girl we met at the hostel over breakfast scurried across the street to the market to find willing, like-minded participants and preferably backpackers like ourselves.
Luckily, we found another solo traveller and a group of 4 girls. BINGO!
It was almost as if the driver couldn't believe we succeeded in our challenge but he was happy to take us and I joked that he should pay us commission! It's always advised to establish a good relationship with the tour guide/driver/fixer as they are super knowledgeable about the area and trustworthy people just trying to make a living themselves.
True to his word, he drove us to and from the falls where we basked in the absolute glory of the turquoise blue waters for a few hours in the 30 degree heat, and hiked to the top of the Waterfall in our flip-flops (side note- PACK TRAINERS if this is something you want to do!)
Which, you definitely should do, as there's a beautiful lagoon at the top covered by a roof of forest trees with slivers of sunlight creeping in to create the most gorgeous reflections of light on the water.
There's also a pretty cool swing in the middle of the pool where of course we enjoyed another photoshoot for the 'gram.
Both are definitely experiences not to be missed if ever in Luang Prabang. Both Falls are an exotic jungle paradise in their own right.
Stace x
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