According to local legend, Tat Kuang Si was formed when a wise old man dug into the earth and revealed the waters of the Nam Si River. After the water came to Kuang Si, a golden deer made its home under a huge rock that protruded from the falls. The sound of water falling on this rock created an echo that would draw people to the waterfall from as far away as China.
Getting There
The rock of legend was unfortunately shaken out of place by an earthquake in 2001, and fell into the pool beneath. This doesn’t make this legendary site any less attractive to tourists, however, and we were one of the many passing through Luang Prabang who took the time to visit this beautiful site.
The easiest and cheapest way to get to the falls is to join a tour. There are many independent tourist agencies around Old Town that will take you, and you can usually negotiate a lower price than what they ask for. Doing this limits the time you can spend at the falls, however.
The alternative is to hire a tuk tuk driver to take you. This can work out more expensive, but if you have good haggling skills you can probably get the price down. However, by doing this you may have a bit more time and freedom to explore the waterfall.
We booked a tour on our way home after visiting the TEAC, so we made sure to be up early the next morning. We had an okay breakfast at a place near the tourist office, and waited for our pickup. Unfortunately it was late, eating into the already limited time we would have at the waterfall. Apparently they had to wait to long for someone else in our tour group to wake up.
The ride to the waterfall follows the Mekong River, so we could enjoy views and take in the sights during the drive through the jungle. On arrival we were told what time to return and were left to our own devices. We made our way to the entrance to the falls, and paid our way in.
Free the Bears
The first thing visitors will encounter is the bear sanctuary. In fact, this is another draw for tourists coming to Tat Kuang Si.
The site is run in collaboration with an organisation called Free the Bears, a charity aiming to end the use of bear bile. While bear bile does technically have medicinal uses, there are many alternatives, both herbal and synthetic, that don’t require unnecessary cruelty.
Bear bile is used in Traditional Chinese “Medicine”1, but extracting it from the bears is cruel and inhuman. They are kept in small cages and bile is sucked out of their livers while they are still alive. This process is said to be extremely painful, and leads to long term physical and mental health issues for the bears.
Free the Bears rescues bears from these farms and provides sanctuaries so they can live out their remaining days in comfort. These sanctuaries are often necessary, since many bears are farmed from birth and would not survive in the wild.
One of these sanctuaries is placed at the foot of the Kuang Si Waterfall tourist site, allowing visitors to see the bears roaming free, or at least as free as they can be. I was very excited to see the bears in a safe environment. For the most part they lay around not doing much, but one of the bears decided to demonstrate how fast it can move for us.
In this part of the site there is an exhibit showing the size of the cages they are kept in on the farms. You can get in and see how it feels. Even though we are smaller than bears, it still feels claustrophobic. It really helps it to sink in how cruelly these bears are treated on the bile farms.
It was a sombre start to our journey up the waterfall, but I’m grateful that it is there. The first step in any charitable mission is to raise awareness, and this bear sanctuary being placed here certainly achieves that first step. It’s also a reminder that we need to appreciate nature, and we kept this in our minds as we started our hike to the waterfall.
Pools
Hiking up the waterfall isn’t too strenuous. It is a popular tourist site, so the route is easy to follow for anyone of any fitness level. Along the way I caught sight of a blue clipper butterfly, something I would add to my Minecraft Mod later.
The sound of running water got louder as we followed the path to its source. We saw crystal clear and bright turquoise pools, bounded by the white of water flowing over rocks into the next pool. They were beautiful and clean, and we really wanted to swim in them. I though they would never allow it, but to our surprise we discovered that not only was it allowed, it was encouraged.
Many of the pools even had red garra in them – the fish that eat dead skin from your feet. You will often see these fish used for pedicures in many places in Asia, but I’ve never seen one in a nature before. Although, I don’t know for sure, but I think these fish were placed here by the organisation that runs the site.
I took off my shoes and dipped my feet in for a pedicure. Instantly I felt them nibbling at my feet, feasting on the dead skin that had yet to fall off naturally. It feels like a light tugging, often tickles, but isn’t painful. With newly cleaned feet, we of course changed into our bathing suits and went in for a swim.
Unfortunately we were conscious that we were limited for time, and we wanted to make it to the top. So reluctantly, after a short dip we got dressed again. Leaving the cool, inviting pools behind, we set our sights on the main event: the source of the falls themselves.
The Fall
On the way we saw a watermill and a cosy place to rest and watch the river. Nearer to the top of the waterfall was a large area where people could picnic. We weren’t interested in any of this, however. We wanted to see the falls, the place where the rock once was.
Despite the place being busy, we were not disappointed. Given that the waterfalls we visited in Thailand tended to not have any water, it was great to finally see one that actually flowed. Flowing over smooth limestone that gives the pools below its turquoise colour, it was a worthy reward for our short hike.
This was the place local legends spoke of, a legend that brought two more people from China to see it Unfortunately the rock was no more, but this didn’t take away from the beauty of the waterfall. I wondered for a moment where the rock was now, and if the golden deer still lived close by.
The View
We weren’t quite done yet. While this was what many view as the start of the waterfall, we were still a short way away from the top of the mountain where this waterfall originates. A huge length of metal stairs winded its way to the highest point, and we decided to follow it before we returned to our ride.
This part of the hike was hard. The steps were steep and there were many of them. We took our time, what little of it we had left. Another clipper visited us, and I wondered if it was the same one from lower down, following us up the mountain.
Eventually we got closer to the top and we were able to see heavily forested mountains that stretched out until the horizon. Often we may want to give up when we try and conquer a mountain, but there comes a point where nature reminds you why you do it.
At the highest point you couldn’t see as much, but there was a viewing platform that you had to pay an extra fee to climb up. You’ll often find microtransactions like this at tourist sites in Asia, and will only learn of them after you’ve paid the entrance ticket. It was a minor disappointment on an otherwise enjoyable day.
We rushed back down the mountain to make it back in time for our ride back to Old Town. We made it in good time, but one couple that rode in with us didn’t show. We waited for as long as we could, but eventually decided that they wanted to make their own way back.
As the van wound its way back along the Mekong, I replayed the day in my mind. Tat Kuang Si had offered a window into the balance between tourism and conservation. Some part of me envied the couple that had remained behind. We could have spent more time in the pools, and seen the waterfall by night.
I always say you never miss out on things, rather you gain new things to look forward to. So I vowed to return to the waterfall one day. Next time as part of a less rushed itinerary, giving us the freedom to linger and appreciate all that this site has to offer.
- I refuse to acknowledge it as real medicine. ↩︎
