Same Same But Different

It was so wonderful just letting myself wake up when my body said it was time to wake up and not getting up at 5:30. Once we were all awake and ready we walked out of our room and we were greeted with a good morning from the guy the day before that told us his guesthouse had the “best price….really”. We made our way to a restaurant that was serving “American Breakfast”. All 3 of us ordered an American breakfast and enjoyed every bit of it. We finished our breakfast and paid our 34,000 kip each (the conversion was 1 dollar to 8,700 kip….it’s good to be American J) and walked out into the beautiful Laos sun. We walked a bit down the road, looking up at the temples that towered over us and our thoughts were interrupted by a couple from Spain asking us if we wanted to go to the waterfalls today. It was a perfect invite because we didn’t really know where our day would take us, and it worked out great for them too because they needed a couple other people to fill up the tuk-tuk (which is what the little truck taxi’s are called) so they could get a better deal per person. We agreed and we found 3 other people who were from Sweden, so we got an even better deal. We decided to go to Kuang Si Falls, which also had a shelter for the endangered Moon Bears. When we arrived, we made our way around with the couple from Spain- their names were Oscar and Racquel. Oscar had already been to the Falls, so we designated him our tour guide. The Falls were tiered with beautiful limestone deposits everywhere. We walked up and stopped at each of the tiers, that became more and more beautiful. As we made our way up to the very top, there were men making steps out of concrete. We asked if we could write our names in the wet cement and they smiled and told us “dai, dai” (which means “can, can”- they also speak Thai in Laos). Each of us wrote our names and the date, so we will forever be a part of Laos. Then we continued our uphill journey to the top. I have decided that Thai flip-flops are not the best thing to hike in. I ended up just taking them off and hiking barefoot because it was easier. As we climbed to the top, we found a little path (well it wasn’t really a path, we just turned it into a path) that took us to a pool at the very top tier. There were hardly and people there because it was off the path. We cannon-bombed off the rocks into the pool and then rested where the water fell over the edge. It was exhilarating as we lay there, the water rushing over us and falling over 5 stories to the bottom.
We decided we couldn’t stay there forever like we wanted, so we got out and made our trek back up trying not to slip on the rocks (they become a lot more slippery when you’re wet) and walked across the top of the falls and then back down. There was a small wooden railing between us and the bottom, so we gripped it as we slowly walked across the top of the falls. As we walked down we passed by the other tiers and we stopped in the pool with the rope swing that I was wanting to stop at since we saw it at first. I climbed up the tree, reached over the edge, grabbed the rope and stepped back to jump. I didn’t realize how scary it was until I was up at the top having to jump. Everyone down in the water kept encouraging me. It took me about 3 minutes and then I finally went for it. It was a blast! I did it 4 more times…..I couldn’t do it anymore after that because my hands were killing me. I never realized how hard it is to hold yourself up on rope. Racquel took videos of me and they were hilarious! One time it even looked like I walked on the water and then biffed it face first. We saw our friends from Sweden and we all joined back together and headed back to our Tuk-Tuk. As we drove back, we were all immersed in conversation about Borat, as we were deep into laughter we got slammed with water. Right now in Laos and in Thailand they are celebrating their New Year. The way they celebrate is by splashing people with water. So by the time we arrived back into town we were soaked, but we had so much fun! We spent that night shopping in the night market, where you can find the best deals ever and barter with the people selling their things. I am pleased to say that I am an amazing barterer (it probably comes from my cheap dad J). We found some really cute shirts that said “Same Same” on the front and “Different” on the back. In Thailand, and in Laos, everyone always says “same, same” when they’re trying to say similar, so it’s a big joke to say “same, same”. So me and Cherise each bought a “same, same” shirt, but we got different colors. We wore them the next day (because we’re so cool) and everybody kept telling us you guys are “same, same…..but different"