Me, begrimed, bedraggled and soaking wet, after I had climbed right to the top of Kuang Si waterfall, about 24 kilometers from Luang Prabang. This is not the largest waterfall I have ever seen, but it is probably the most spectacular. The sheer volume of water and speed of flow are both very impressive. The waterfall is in a national park, and there is a good path to the point shown in the picture. From here there is a jungle trek on either side of the water fall. I chose to cross the bridge here and then go up the path. This was an interesting scramble - rocks, mud, insects, decay, and fecundity. The top was not very interesting - the path dissolved into a multitude of water sodden slightly clearer areas, with no obvious direction to go in, and all apparently leading into dense jungle. Coming back down was painful - in flip-flops, which are not the ideal footware for this sort of thing. I slipped over four times; and came down much of the way on at least three points of contact - sometimes five. The wildlife was everywhere - centipedes; columns of ants; flies; beetles; butterflies with a wingspan the width of my head; spiders; and a lizard that had gone in for camouflage in a big way - its head and antennae made it look like a large elaborate cricket - spoiled only by the fact that the lizard was about nine inches long; and lots of unidentified movements of other lifeforms in the rotting jungle debris.
Oh - and leeches - I collected my first leech today as I found out when I came to hose off my legs, feet, and arms in the car park at the bottom.