Day 9

Today a group of eight of us students went to the Waterfall and Bear Sanctuary whilst the other half went elephant riding. The bears were great to see and were surprisingly smaller than I had expected. We proceeded to walk further up the hill where we discovered multiple small waterfalls followed by a large waterfall at the very top. At the main pool there was a rope swing tied to the end of a large tree that people were swinging off and into the water from a height of around 3-5 metres. Although many tourists were wearing bikinis and no shirts we decided as a group to remain covered whilst we were there even though it involved completely wearing our clothes. We thought that by doing this we would be respecting the locals and their culture. Josh, Elísabet and myself all climbed up the tree and swung off into the water multiple times, even though Elísabet almost hit a group of tourists in the head with the stick used to grab the rope.

I thought these waterfalls and natural pools were absolutely amazing and is not something you can see or experience very often in Australia. The theme parks at home or any man made amusement ride does not even compare to the natural beauty of the waterfall. Whilst climbing up the tree and swinging off into the water was stepping out of my comfort zone, I am glad I did it and had the courage to try something new.

We departed back for our hotel and had a small car accident where the bus driver stalled on a hill and reversed, knocking over two concrete posts. Luckily, nobody was hurt or injured.

I decided I wanted to spend a bit of time with Amelia and Jo (as I have mainly been spending my time with other students) and so went shopping with them at the local night markets. After purchasing some items we headed over to the nice restaurant across the water only to find that the bridge to get their had been washed away only a day after we were walking it last week. The food at the restaurant was delicious and the setting was incredible. The tables were very low on the ground where we sat on cushions with our feet and legs in an enclosed pit underneath. Jo gave a lovely speech on how proud she is of all of us and what a great time she had. For our hard work and good behaviour she allowed for us to have a few beers that night, which we appreciated very much.

Later we invited Abby and Elísabet to come back to our room to hangout. It was nice for the five of us to reflect and discuss our time in Laos and what this trip has meant to each of us individually. I really appreciated this as it gave me an opportunity to see what I have experienced through the eyes of somebody else and through a completely different perspective.