Stitches

This is the bed where Elizabeth got three stitches put in her right hand. This bed’s in the Luang Prabang Regional Hospital ER.

When we woke up earlier that morning, we decided to go to the Kuang Si waterfall, just outside of Luang Prabang. It’s supposed to be a picturesque blue color, with gently flowing water and swimming pools.

There are three ways to get there: a shared minivan, a private tuk tuk, and by motorbike. We opted for the motorbike.

After getting our brand new Scoopy and filling it up with gas, we started to make our way to the falls. We didn’t make it far.

As we rounded a left turn, we lost balance of the bike. It’s hard to move two people in one direction, especially as novice motorbike riders. So while we were supposed to be going left, our bike toppled to the right.

At first, we thought we were okay. Then Elizabeth looked down and noticed her hand was bleeding.

The local Lao people came out with cleaning solution and gauze. She wrapped her hand, and a nice man told her to hop on his bike, he would take us to the hospital.

I followed in our now dent-up Scoopy.

About 1 hour, 200,000 kip ($23), and one bandaged hand later, we were back to square one. Still in Luang Prabang, with a bike, and without pictures of Kuang Si.

We did finally make it to the falls. We hiked around the top, which was a nice loop. But the minivan group we rode with left early, stranding us at the falls. Luckily another tuk tuk driver was nice enough to take us home.

The water was brown.

It has rained a lot this year.