Waterfalls, kiwis and a missed reunion

Was going to get up and see the monks doing there morning Tak bath which is when they walk the streets and people place food into their tubs, this is their meals for the day, I have seen this before in Thailand many years ago and was pretty tired again and my neck has now joined my list of other ailments it’s a bit different from normal, so just went back to sleep, tomorrows another day.
Waterfalls today, the sun was out in the morning so that was sweet, was meeting up with the guy from Israel at 11am for the Tuk tuk ride out there, as I was heading to breakfast I engaged in conversation with a tuk tuk driver about cost just to get an idea on price and what they would drop to. I said I was meeting someone so I MIGHT come back later and use him, notice the big MIGHT there.
Sat down for breakfast and this guy just sat across the road watching me the freak, I mean come on there are other people around, I did explain MIGHT come back to him. After breakfast as I was leaving there he was again, I do good price we go now, BUGGER OFF. I told him I MIGHT be back again, by this time I was thinking your way to pushy for me so I will go with someone else anyway.
Down the road to wait, 11am Israel shows up, can’t go he is sick, good, the tuk tuk driver who was next to me said he had a couple of people coming back and could take me for 50000 kips, Everyone I had talked to said around 20000 to 30000kips was the going price. I talked him into taking me for 30000 and them for 50000, so we waited, and waited, and yes waited, I was starting to get a little bit displeased by this stage.
So he said jump in and we will see if we can pick anyone up on main street, Ok you have this then I am off and I’ll find someone else to go with. Down the road and who do you think spotted me the other tuk tuk driver, which he gave me a real dirty look, as though I had just murdered his family, and slapped his mother in the face. Yep now I have to see him when I walk down the road as well.
The tuk tuk guy I was with stopped on the main street and I managed to find some more people, yes you noticed the I, well it was more me sitting in the tuk tuk and people asking if I was going to the falls, but this is my glory so I will take the credit. After a few minutes the tuk tuk guy came back, so it was that we were paying 30000kips each, which I thought was a bit high, but it was a 37km ride and then he waits for 2 hours while we play in the water, so I’ll let him off.
After we were loaded there were 5 in all, Two more Kiwis a Irish guy and another guy who I did not find out where he was from. Off we went out of town then swinging our way into the hills. Now the thing about these waterfalls is its very blue water full of minerals that make pools as the minerals build up on the rocks, well I think that is what happens.
We made it to the pools and headed off up, on the way you go past a bear sanctuary, which at the moment has about 15 bears, some of which they are getting ready for release back into the wild, the problem with Lao is they are turning a lot of the bears habitat into farm land and destroying hectares of forest. For the bears this means more contact with humans and the inevitable run ins. Poor bears. Humans have a lot to answer for.
After the bears it was up to the waterfalls, Israeli guy said take to left track so I did and it just leads all the way to the top then you have to cross back to the right to get to any of the pools, so back down the right, I took lots of photo’s as they are pretty astounding, the pools are a turquoise, really beautiful.
I bumped into the others that had come in tuk tuk with me and me and the other Kiwi’s headed down for the pools at the bottom, and a swim. Have to say the water was cold, we are in the mountains here I know, but I did go in and have a swim around. If the weather was nicer I would have stayed in longer.
At one of the swimming holes we meet a guy who is working with the bears and has been for about 4 years, they have another sanctuary down in Cambodia as well with over 150 bears in it, these places all have international funding, from the way he was talking it is the governments of these countries that cause the problems.
It was time to head back to the big city lights of Luang Phrabang and I was going to meet up with the English girl who is also cycling. We had arranged to meet at 7pm at a place called Here and Now, which I thought would have been in the lonely planet. On arrival back I stopped in for a massage, which I am heading back for another one today. There good, very good.
Later on could not find Here and Now in Lonely planet so wondered up and down the night market streets hoping to come across her but alas not to be, so brought food from the stalls and things, then after an hour and a half headed off for dinner, it’s just eat eat eat at the moment.