Ngày đầu ở Luang Prabang và được rủ trekking đến thác Kuang Si

Ngày đầu ở Luang Prabang và được rủ trekking đến thác Kuang Si

Hello everyone, this is Kaylee. After two days and one night traveling by slowboat from Thailand to Laos, I am now in the beautiful ancient capital of Luang Prabang, Laos. In the previous vlog, I was really happy to receive everyone’s attention and support . In particular, I was very, very happy to receive a message from Ms. Ha La La, who inspired me to take this trip. I have been following her travel journey for a long time and really enjoyed her experiences in Thailand and Laos. That’s why, on the occasion of my 30th birthday, I decided to travel alone to explore and experience these two countries. And today, when Ms. Ha left a comment, it really felt like I had successfully followed my idol . Thank you Ms. Ha as well as everyone who has supported this small YouTube channel. Your encouragement, sharing and comments are a great motivation for me to continue and perfect each video in the most perfect way. So if you have any comments or things to share, please feel free to comment below. I’m really grateful to everyone. Thank you. Yeah. Hung Yen? Why did you come here? Because I came here before Covid. Oh . I have some brothers and sisters working here. So I have relatives here . Yes. Am I renting this house? Or am I buying it? Rent it and then come here to do business? You can’t buy it here because you have to have a Laotian citizen. Or if you want to buy it, you have to have a Laotian person in your name. Yes,
the hotel I stayed at was called Liberty Place, owned by a Vietnamese couple in Hung Yen who came to Laos to start a business before Covid opened. The room rate I booked through Booking.com was $11.6, which is about 300,000 VND per night. Because the price was quite reasonable, the room was clean, spacious and comfortable, I decided to book two more nights and transfer money directly to the Vietnamese bank account to the hostess, so I didn’t need to exchange it to Lao currency. The hostess was lovely and friendly, so even though I was in a foreign country, I still felt very close like I was at home. For 300,000 VND a night, the homestay also included a full breakfast with fruit juice, coffee, bread with eggs or pancakes prepared by two Lao staff. In addition, the hotel also prepared free bicycles for guests to use to visit the old town, so after breakfast, I chose the cutest bicycle and started exploring the ancient city of Luang Prabang on a sunny morning. Luang Prabang is an ancient and poetic city located in northern Laos, surrounded by mountains and the confluence of two large rivers, the Mekong and the Nam Khan. To be more precise, the Nam Khan River is a branch of the Mekong River, so the water from the Mekong River flows into the Nam Khan River. Luang Prabang was once the capital of the powerful Lan Xang Kingdom from the 14th century, so this place bears the typical historical, cultural and religious imprint of Laos. 1995 was also the year I was born. What a coincidence. Luang Prabang was recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Thanks to the beauty of the blend of traditional Lao architecture and French colonial buildings. As well as hundreds of ancient religious structures that are still carefully preserved to this day. The city is famous for its ancient and peaceful atmosphere, slow pace of life that has not been commercialized and profound Buddhist culture thanks to the preservation of traditional values. Thanks to that, Luang Prabang has become a famous tourist destination that attracts many tourists from all over the world. This is an ideal destination for those who love peace and quiet in the historical space of the heritage city considered the cradle of Lao indigenous culture. Some famous places in Luang Prabang are Wat Xiengthong, the most ancient and sacred temple in Laos. Kuang Si waterfall, a multi-layered blue waterfall with majestic beauty. Morning alms-giving ceremony, a unique traditional ritual , reflecting the spiritual life of the people. And of course, there are indispensable old-house cafes and bustling night markets. After cycling around the city, I decided to stop at a coffee shop called Formula B. This is the coffee shop that I saved before seeing my British friend Georgie post a story while in Luang Prabang. Georgie was the first customer to enter my coffee shop on the day I quietly opened it. Since she knew I had just opened the shop, she came to support me every day and gradually we became friends. After leaving Mui Ne, we continued our journey around Asia, including Laos. We still kept in touch and followed each other through social networks. Because I also intended to go to Laos, when I saw Georgie post a story about a favorite coffee shop in Luang Prabang, I immediately saved it to visit when I came to Laos. And then today, I am actually sitting here alone in a strange city but it feels very familiar. And I suddenly realized that there are people we meet not just by chance but also by silent fate that lead us to places we have never been. Giving us experiences that if we just stay in one place, we probably will never have. And life is truly full of surprises like that. While I was sipping coffee and eating cake, Federico, my Italian friend who went on a slowboat with me yesterday, suddenly texted me and invited me to go trekking to Kuang Si waterfall . Federico is an Italian engineer who loves trekking. He also loves to travel and experience, so he took the opportunity to fly to Thailand, take a slowboat to Laos to find a trekking route before taking the train to China to attend a professional conference. While still on the train, Federico asked me what my plans were in Luang Prabang. I said I didn’t have any plans. I would figure it out when I arrived. Well, he asked if he found a trekking route in Luang Prabang, would I go? I really like to explore, especially activities like mountain climbing, camping or trekking, so when he invited me, I immediately agreed. But I thought he was just asking me out, I didn’t expect him to really go. And he asked me out of the blue, like, “I’m leaving in 10 minutes, do you want to go?” I checked Instagram for credibility, saw that this guy had just received his PhD and often posted pictures of trekking in all kinds of countries, so I said OK, then went home to change clothes and asked him to come pick me up at the homestay. Don’t worry. Let’s not die today. Ok. Because I was invited suddenly, I had absolutely no information about this trekking route. I only knew that the destination would be the famous Kuang Si waterfall that everyone would have to go to when coming to Luang Prabang. According to the plan, we would go to Ban Long, then leave the motorbike there and trek through the forest to Kuang Si waterfall. At first , I thought this route was very famous, many people would go. Who would have thought that I was participating in a survival program to find civilization before it got dark. I don’t know where this guy found this trekking information, but on the way there, I didn’t see anyone trekking. It seems like no one has been on this route for ten years. The distance from my homestay to Ban Long is 20 km, but after only about 5 km of asphalt road, we turned onto a road that was all dirt and rocks. All around were trees and grass. Every now and then, there were a few houses of local ethnic people on both sides of the road. Because it was the rainy season, there were muddy sections of the road, so I had to get out of the car and walk so that Federico could drive through without getting stuck. At this time, he even teased me, saying goodbye to me to leave me here. In general, this guy was a good driver, so I was somewhat reassured. When we reached this part, there was a barrier in front and we couldn’t go any further. When we asked this lady, she said that we had to turn back and take another road to get to Ban Long. Later, we found out that this was Nahm Dong waterfall. The next road seemed to be the road to a private tourist area, so we couldn’t go in. We were planning to drive back according to her instructions, but Federico said that since we had already come here, we should go in and visit. Wow. So we went down to see what was below and we discovered that there was a stream with many magical jade-colored layers running under the valley. On both sides, people built huts around the cool grass. We were surprised that there was such a beautiful place here. We were happy to find the Hidden Gem, but I didn’t know if it was hidden or if we were just country bumpkins and didn’t know about this place. But there was only one here. Two of us are tourists, the rest are locals. 1 2 3 Go Sitting and sipping cold beer in the middle of the natural mountains and forests, with the sound of the stream flowing, I taught Federico how to clink beers in Vietnam and discussed the history of Southeast Asian countries. Life suddenly seemed interesting. 1 2 3 Go Wow! After finishing the beer, we continued on our way to Ban Long. Ban Long is a small highland village. The people are mainly ethnic minorities in the mountains. I think “Ban” means village . Like “Ban Kang Wat” in Thailand. Many places along the way also start with the word “Ban”. Life here, in my opinion, is quite separate from modern life. People still maintain a traditional lifestyle , with rustic, simple houses and jobs that are mainly connected to nature. If it weren’t for Federico, I probably would never have known about this place because this was a stop before starting the trekking journey to Kuang Si. After arriving at Ban Long, we stopped at a grocery store to buy some food and recharge our batteries for the upcoming journey. Here, we also met some very cute children. How old are you? After sitting for a while, the children gathered more. Federico wanted to buy their books for a friend. I was having fun and bought a few books as souvenirs . Then the children ran home to get more books to sell to us. It was so cute. The children here are so gentle. The children sat together in a corner of the village to play together, without phones to play games or dance to TikTok like the children in the city. I suddenly remembered my childhood, my childhood when I went out and occasionally saw foreigners in the neighborhood. We said “Hello” for a few words and they gave us candy and cakes. Some people even took pictures and sent them to the post office to the children in the neighborhood. Hopefully, when they grow up, they can travel further to broaden their worldview and see how vast the sky is . Naturally, I also see myself in them, so when I saw the ice cream truck passing by, I called in to buy ice cream for them. But surprisingly, the ice cream seller was Vietnamese, everyone. Vietnam. Vietnam , yes, Vietnam , Vietnam, Vietnam. Are you Vietnamese? Really? 5,000 cups. This guy is also Vietnamese, everyone. Oh my gosh, there are so many Vietnamese people in Laos. What’s his name? His name is Hoang. Mr. Hoang. Ice cream. Hello. Ice cream. Thank you. The grocery store owner invited me to stay for dinner, but because I was quite full and couldn’t eat , I had to refuse her. And after saying goodbye to the kids, we drove to a local’s house to ask for permission to park our bikes so we could start trekking into the forest. There was an interesting piece of information that Federico asked why I was so happy to meet my fellow countrymen? I said that of course I was happy because in a foreign country, seeing Vietnamese people made me feel like we were neighbors. As for Federico, it was the opposite. He said that he didn’t really like meeting Europeans because when he went out, he preferred to hang out and talk with Asians. So that’s probably why he invited me to go trekking with him. So fresh. The road from Ban Long village to Kuang Si waterfall, if calculated as the crow flies, is only about 5 km, but in reality, it was very far because the mountainous terrain was very complicated and there were no signs on the way, and we didn’t have an internet connection to see the way, so we got lost several times. This part was where we went into the local people’s fields. On Google Map, there was a way to continue, but they said it was not possible and we had to take another route, so we had to turn back and find another way. When we turned back to take another route, we encountered a barrier. But anyway , we had already come all the way here, so we stubbornly climbed the barrier and continued. Well, we started at 2:30 pm, but it wasn’t until 5:30 pm that we reached the waterfall. Because it was the rainy season, the landscape in the forest was lush and green, but luckily Luckily it didn’t rain that day, otherwise we would have had to try to walk in the rain. Because we were both subjective, thinking that the path was short, so no one prepared anything. I only brought a bag containing my camera, phone and a water bottle. I should have worn a backpack, which would have been more convenient to carry on my back, making it easier to trek in the forest. But I had already given my small backpack to the Laotian kid on the slowboat, so I had to carry a cloth bag on my shoulder to trek. Usually, people would take a tuktuk or book a tour to Kuang Si. If Federico hadn’t invited me to go trekking, I probably would have booked a tour to go with everyone, but I didn’t expect that I would have to go into such a deep forest and deep water to get to the waterfall. But when we got to this road, I didn’t know, it didn’t go as planned . Because the original plan was to go that way. And when we had to go another way, oh my god. We didn’t know if this road led to the waterfall or not and just saw a trail and just kept going straight. Federico’s plan was that after we got to the waterfall, he would let me take a tuktuk with the tour group to get back to the center of Luang Prabang. He would trek back into the forest alone to Ban Long to get a motorbike to go back to Luang Prabang. We walked in the forest for two hours without knowing if we had a way out or not, so I was quite panicked. But Mr. Federico was very calm . He kept asking me if I was okay, ok or not. Because at that time, I couldn’t talk anymore because I was very tired and my mind was very confused. But the good thing was that he was good, he walked very fast. But the good thing is that they often turn back to ask “Are you ok?” and often stop to let me drink water. But luckily, it was like a very memorable experience . Luckily, we found and heard the sound of the waterfall and followed the sound of the waterfall and found a sign of life and civilization . And we were very happy at that time. Kuang Si is a natural waterfall with many layers of water pouring down to form beautiful natural lakes with a jade green color . But for me, Kuang Si waterfall also has a very special beauty because I had to go through a rather arduous journey. Because I had to walk through the forest for 3 hours with a friend from far away on a very coincidental occasion. And I think this was a very special experience and truly memorable in the year I turned 30. Wow! Wow! After watching the waterfall, it was 6:00 pm. The original plan was ruined. At this time, all the tourists had gone home, which meant there were no more tuktuks running back to the center. It was too dark for Federico to walk through the forest to Ban Long to get his motorbike. We had to ask a driver to take us back to Ban Long village so we could get our motorbike back to Luang Prabang. It was very easy to ask them to take us back to Luang Prabang, but to ask them to take us to Ban Long village, they had to think very hard. Because in reality, the distance from Ban Long village to Kuang Si waterfall, as I said, is only 5 km. But there is no direct road to get there, everyone. We have to go around in a circle, almost like a circle, to get to Ban Long village. And they had to think very hard. And luckily, they agreed to take us and they charged a very high price. They charged us 900,000 kip, which is 1.2 million VND for a 40 km trip. It was almost dark at that time and we had no other choice so we had to accept it. Luckily we managed to get it down to 600,000 kip. To save time, Federico helped them unload the goods quickly. And then he led us to his wife’s brother’s car to take us to Ban Long. At first, I thought they were charging quite a high price, but after thinking about it, the road from Kuang Si waterfall to Ban Long village was very scary and it was very dark so I thought the price was quite reasonable. After the driver dropped us off at Ban Long, we took our motorbikes and drove back to Luang Prabang at night. Luckily, we were safe and sound to return to Luang Prabang. Yes, that was my first day in Luang Prabang with a trip and an experience that I will never forget. The vlog has been quite long, see you all in the next vlog to explore other places in Luang Prabang . I am Kaylee. Thank you for watching. Bye.

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