waterfall – Here and There

Be wary of Get Your Guide if you’re planning to travel to Iceland.

When you travel, you always need to expect the unexpected. Even if everything is planned perfectly, things can change on a dime. Sometimes the changes are good, but sadly in this following example the changes are bad.

It’s a pretty simple thing–If a tour company confirms a booking for a tour, that means you have a spot reserved right? Apparently not with Get Your Guide. I’ll let my friend’s experience speak for itself:

“We had a tour booked to go to the Blue Lagoon, around a fishing village and some of the country well in advance of our trip. And then, 5 days before our tour, they told us that time was booked and asked if we could go an hour earlier, and we said yes, not really a big deal. Then they told us 2 days before we were supposed to go, that they didn’t have any slots. WHY did we wait this whole time, if you never had any spots to open to begin with?? So then, by the time they told us all the slots had been taken, the individual Blue Lagoon tickets themselves were sold out.”

I always want to give people, and even companies sometimes, the benefit of a doubt. But if I’m going to pay money to fly all the way to Iceland, booked one of the key sights well in advance, and then 2 days beforehand they cancel — that’s totally unacceptable. You tell’em Joe.

To end on a happy note though, my friend ended up booking a different tour with Reykjavik Excursions that took them to another one of the less-touristy hot springs which they thoroughly enjoyed, despite not seeing the main attraction they wanted to see most, and said their guide was amazing. Here she is again:

“We took a 9 hour tour around the Golden Circle, waterfalls, and geysers. The small hot springs they took us to ended up being a really cool experience. They actually cook their own bread under the sand along the beach, where one of the hot springs bakes it. They bake it for 24 hours, and when we got there, they had finished a loaf, and so we got to try it!”

All’s well that ends well I guess! And a special thanks to Laura Remis for the heads up!

After our outing with the elephants, we made our way to what is on pretty much every Top 5 of Laos list — Kuang Si Falls. Because we had already pre-arranged this at the hotel, our driver picked us up from the Elephant Village and drove us the 30-45 minutes to the falls. If you take the excursion out there on your own, I would highly recommend getting a driver with an actual car as opposed to hiring a Tuk Tuk. The road there is dusty, bumpy, and windy and would be very uncomfortable on the back of the rickshaw.

The entrance fee for the falls is 20K kip. Be sure to bring a bathing suit and towel because even if you don’t think you’ll want to go in the water, you will once you see it. The Kuang Si Falls are a beautiful emerald-jade color with hundreds of butterflies that flutter all around; it truly lives up to the hype. The first watering hole you approach at the falls is by far the biggest and busiest. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is the only watering hole out of the excitement of seeing it first. Keep walking up and you’ll see that there are about 7 or 8 watering holes and they get progressively less and less busy as you keeping walking up the hill (that being said, the first watering hole does have a tree that you can jump off of into the water).

As you make it up the hill, you’ll eventually reach the apex of the falls which is a giant 200 ft. waterfall. At the bottom, you can take some great pictures and there is a trail that will take you to the top. Now when we tried to hike up this, we were both wearing flip flops, making it nearly impossible. So if you want to hike up to the top, be sure to wear shoes. Also, the climb is incredibly steep, like on your hands and knees steep. It is not for anyone who isn’t in peak physical shape. As we were struggling to get to the top, we asked the folks coming down if it was worth the effort. Most, if not all, said “No”. The general consensus was that the view wasn’t really that good at the top and you may as well just take more pictures from the bottom. So it’s up to you whether you think the climb is worth it.

We eventually settled on a water hole 2/3 of the way up from the bottom of the trail and hung out there for a good couple of hours. The water is a little chilly, but you do get used to it after a while and the refreshing coolness and cleanness of the water is a welcome escape from the hot mugginess of Southeast Asia.