After about an hour we arrived at a small village. Our tour guide Corn (Sweet Corn was his preferred nickname) split us up and took 8 of the travelers to visit the Buddha temples in the caves across the river. We took a long, thin boat to the Tam Ting caves and climbed up a several stories of steep stairs to the caves. The temples were dark and covered wall to wall with statues of Buddha in every imaginable shape and size. Corn encouraged us l donate to the cave temples and shared a ritual to bring good karma our way.
After the caves we returned to the village for an exciting and unique opportunity: elephant riding! The massive mammals were friendly and happy to trod along a path with us on their backs--as long as there was plenty of sugar cane along the way. We took turns riding on their surprisingly bony shoulders and feeding them leaves and cane.
After elephant riding we took a break for lunch (eggs, sticky rice, steamed veggies and bananas) before cramming back into the clown car and headed for the Kuang Si Waterfall.
When we finally arrived (over an hour in the hot van) we swam in the lower waterfall, flew from a tree on the rope swing and jumped from a scary height off the rocks to a gorgeous, natural blue pool. After almost an hour we went to the upper waterfall. It was about 20 times the size and beauty of the first one. We took countless group photos and certified Corn as an "almost professional photographer."
At the conclusion of our day long excursion we arrived back in the center of Luang Prabang. We devoured several plates of noodles and skewered meats from the friendly street vendors and rounded out an awesome day by supporting the local economy at the main street night market.
On sunday morning 5 abroaders woke up early to head over to Big Brother Mouse to work on English skills with Lao high school students. Their skills ranged dramatically. Some of us worked on grammar rules and synonyms for more basic words while others simply practiced basic conversational English. The students were as interested in learning about our culture as we were there's-via was a very enriching experience for all.
We were highly impressed with their dedication to learning our very tricky language--it was Sunday morning and they had just finished exams on Friday, but they were persistent and genuinely interested in all the tips and tricks we had to offer.
After such an enthused report, the rest of the abroaders are looking forward to helping out at the after school library and Big Brother Mouse in the coming days.
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