Stalking tigers - Blogabond

This is definately one of the most chilled-out places I've been to. It's a surreal experience walking through the market at night, as the sellers are all so relaxed the most you can expect is a 'hello', unless you start looking through their wares. Spent a lot of time doing not very much here. I walked up Phouset Hill in the middle of the town, which gives amazing views of the area, and there's a temple at the top too. There's also a reminder of the revolution that happened not too long ago, with a massive gun right next to the temple.

View from the top of Phouset Hill

I rented a mountain bike for a day, and headed off to Khoung Si waterfall, which was 28km to the south of the town. As I set out, I reasoned that that was only 17 or so miles. I hadn't thought that it was, naturally a return journey, or that I might have to go over mountains. It took me close to 2 hours to get there, and I arrived close to being a broken man. However, the waterfalls made it all pretty much worth it.

The big waterfall at Khoung Si

After an hour or so swimming around in the freezing waters on a hot day, I made my way back to the bike through the forest. I turned a corner and came face to face with a tiger, slowly walking in my direction. Fairly understandably, I froze (I'm not sure how this natural reflex reaction is actually supposed to do you any good).

A tiger

Then, I noticed that she was in fact in a cage, none of which I'd noticed on my way up to the waterfalls. Apparently it's all part of a protection scheme in Laos, and nearby were some black bears being 'saved'. The advice on the tigers cage seemed fairly sound - it urged you not to poke anything through the cage as the tiger would actually bite it. Surely we should let Darwinism take care of the sort of people that need these warnings - we need them out of the gene pool.

Anyway, the ride back wasn't so bad, as it was mostly downhill. I swallowed my pride and resorted to pushing the bike up any hills, whilst being overtaken by children on bikes without gears. Had a really good street buffet that evening before heading off to the now infamous Hive Bar for the night. Sensible planning, as I was getting picked up at my guesthouse the next morning at 7:30 for the dreaded bus to Vang Vieng.

written by

olliejohnson on September 10, 2006 from Luang Prabang, Laos

from the travel blog: A man from Cockshutt.

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