One of the must-see sites locally is the Kuang Si waterfall and since my G tour didn’t include it, I booked a half day tour through my guesthouse. It only cost $23 so if it’s anything more than transport to & fro I’ll be thrilled.

And we did more! On the way we made a short stop at a Hmong village, just to walk through their “market” and try to resist the hard sell from adorable children dressed in traditional costumes. $1. Every child was chanting $1. Colorful coin purses, lots of embroidered bags, wall hangings, etc. but we were in a conga line following our guide and since no one stopped, no one bought.

Another 30 minutes and we arrived at the parking lot for the waterfall. In order to avoid joining the literal 100’s of Chinese queuing for the shuttle we followed our guide on a march at double time one mile uphill to the actual entrance. There we were set free for 1.75 hours in the lush jungle to explore the waterfall. It was still peaceful in spite of the crowds, and I leisurely walked the 1/2 mile road up to the falls.

At the base I elbowed my way in for a selfie and a kind Chinese man volunteered to take it for me. I was faintly astonished and bowed my thanks.

[Note: the Chinese tourists are just tolerated here as they’re coming in huge hordes since they built the new bullet train. They don’t need a visa, they stay in Chinese-owned hotels, eat in Chinese restaurants and therefore contribute little to the local economy but put a huge strain on resources. Not being well-traveled nor having social media they unfortunately have no respect for local customs or etiquette, ie disrespecting monks]

I continued on up the 542 metal stairs to the top of the falls where there was a zip line, a small pool to wade in, but no view. Since it was such good exercise I went down, then turned around and did it again!

I followed a different route out, following the beautiful cascades down and past a bear sanctuary (!).

Happy stretching my legs I forewent the shuttle back and walked the road again down to the parking lot to meet my van for the return to LP.

I had them drop me off on the main drag and I wandered until I found myself back at last night’s restaurant. It had the coolest vibe and an available table on the terrace so I whiled away the afternoon watching the world go by.