Today we take the train north to Luang Prabang. It’s approximately 300 kilometers away and takes just over 2 hours on the fast train. The train station and process for boarding is all very official…
When we board the train there are continuous announcements until we start moving and I’m sure the announcer keeps saying “some nut job”… we both hear it and are in stitches.
We arrive to Luang Prabang (hereafter LP) and are picked up by a young man who doesn’t converse with us at all but gets us safely to our hotel – Villa Maly. It is very impressive on arrival…
We are invited to sit in the beautiful lobby and are given a snack while checking in. Then a lady from the spa gives us a 5 minute shoulder and neck massage… delightful. I’m gonna love this place!
Will be checking out that pool at some stage for sure.
Luang Prabang was the royal capital of the country until 1975. It is full of temples and stupas and the whole end of the peninsula where it sits was deemed a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995. Today is Day 1 and we walk the length and breath of it – it’s quaint and beautiful
Our first meal in LP is lunch and it’s hard to pass a noodle soup. Mine is the red coloured one… sooooo good!
We finish lunch and pop into Joma bakery (recommended by the DK eyewitness guide book), which appears to be the Starbucks of Laos… it’s very popular with a certain cohort of tourists (you know who you are!!). I reckon Lonely Planet would have set us wide! Well I am happy with my valentine’s love heart cookie!
We’re on the move again… I can tell it’s going to be a high step count day! On the west of the peninsula is the Mekong river and to the east is the Nam Khan river. There are a couple of bamboo bridges that cross the Nam Khan. They are built every year after the rainy season, in November and taken down every June. We will definitely be crossing both, just not today.
It’s so quiet and peaceful around here, maybe it’s the change from the big city but it’s just gorgeous… I’m really captivated by the calm, the colours and the general vibe of it all.
Jackfruit trees along the road
We meander through the streets and then head back to throw ourselves into the pool (which by the way is freezing!)
Shane has booked a fancy restaurant for dinner tonight… well it is Valentines day so we’re treating ourselves! It’s called “MANDA de LAOS” and has been family run for generations. It has three lotus ponds which have been registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995. It is a stunning restaurant with excellent food
Day 2: We set of early to climb to the top of Mt Phousi… there’s a fair amount of steps but it’s an easy walk, done and dusted before breakfast.
As you’d expect there are Buddhas randomly spread across the mountain.
On a clear day, with a blue sky, I’m sure the views are magnificent from the top, but the sky is hazy (and has been since we got here) so it’s not great.
As we head back for breakfast the morning market is in full swing.
There’s all sorts of fruit and veg for sale. I particularly like the mounds of paste that no doubt make the food taste so good. I would love to buy a whole heap of stuff if we were staying longer and had a kitchen. I also like this lady 😁
After brekkie, we head back out. This time we are walking down the middle of the peninsula to see all the little streets we haven’t yet explored. We like to call it the “guts”. We visit a couple more wats…. Cause that’s what you do in this town!
It’s tiring all this walking in the heat and I really want Shane to try a local massage so we decide to try out one of the many massage places. It costs 80,000 Kip each that’s about €4! I have an hour of reflexology and Shane has the traditional Laos massage. I’m not hearing much groaning so I don’t think she’s been as tough on him as the lady in Vientiane was to me!
We stumble upon Wat Xiengthong which is on my list to see. The guidebook tells me it’s one of the most important wats in town (mind you it seems to say that about nearly all of them for some reason or other!). It was built in the 16th century so it’s one of the oldest and considered one of the most beautiful in LP. The complex is indeed beautiful…
It has an unusual uniqueness whereby there are glass mosaics on the exterior walls of some of the temple buildings….
Before heading back to the hotel for a little rest ahead of the evenings activities, we have lunch at a very low key restaurant… more laab, local green veg and some spring rolls… delicious!
After a quick change and a little respite it’s off to the bamboo bridge. We cross this first one and have a happy hour cocktail …….
…….then walk around the far side til we get to the other bamboo bridge and cross back. We arrive to the edge of he Mekong river just in time to see an amazing red sunset but not with enough time to photograph it… by the time we get into a good position it’s gone… bugger! But it’s captured in my minds eye 😁
We finally get to try the local beer and see the beautiful sky after that amazing sunset.
We make our way through the night market which stretches about a kilometre along the road. It’s hard to believe there wasn’t a sign of this earlier when we walked down this road. When we get to the end of the stalls selling clothes and whatnot’s we arrive at the food market. We’ll grab something handy here tonight as we had a big lunch… it is packed with people and with lots of food options. Shane brings back grilled fish but when it’s my turn I get the real good stuff…. Roti!
Day 3: This morning we are heading out on a Mekong riverboat cruise. We have a light breakfast (well we try!) as we’re getting lunch on the boat.
Our boat is called the Nava Mekong and there are just two other couples onboard – one German, who barely say hello and the other English, who we have a great chat with. [They booked a trip travelling through Southeast Asia with Trailfinders and while loving it, they are exhausted as they’re packing all of the tourist stuff in and they are constantly with a guide – they look wrecked God love them]. It’s really relaxing and we sit upfront until the sun gets too hot and then move inside where there is some shade.
We visit a small village where they demonstrate how they distill the local firewater – some sort of whiskey and where they make scarves etc.. it’s the selling part of the day but that’s ok, we haven’t done any shopping and are happy to contribute to this little village.
I buy a scarf from this lovely lady and we buy some firewater to have later on the balcony.
Of course there’s also a temple here…..
Next we visit the Pak Ou caves. I hadn’t read much about these but they’re included in all the tours.. they’re pretty basic as caves go. Unusual in that they are full of Buddhas! They became a place of worship in the 18th century.
There’s an upper cave and a lower cave. Of course we climb the steps to the upper one (although everyone doesn’t).. not that exciting but I’m always happy to see another Buddha!
The view out to the Mekong from the caves is a big part of this cave visit.
Back on the boat they’re ready to serve us lunch – it’s really good… more local Laos food and we love it. We have a local Luang Prabang beer because why not!
We take advantage of our beautiful hotel and have a couple of hours on the balcony this evening chatting and tasting the firewater and ordering wine (well that’s just me!) from the bar downstairs! It’s a nice temperature (I mean still seriously roasting for us Irish) but I’m coping… just about!!
We decide to eat at a small place close to our hotel. It’s full when we arrive but there is one table that we happily grab. Beside us are three men, with a fourth standing but drinking Beerlao with them. He also seems to be taking orders and delivering food. He’s mad to chat to Shane, wants to know where he’s from and clink glasses for cheers, santé and I tell him slainte! We have a great chat and giggle with him. He tells us he’s working putting in electric wiring and he has two little kids. His name is Ling. Every few minutes he cheers again, we are having great craic. There seems to be quite a rush on in the kitchen and I think a couple of tables are getting a bit impatient for their food. We’re grand as we’re on the beerlao. Ling decides to give Shane a plate of cucumber with soy sauce on it.. he says that’s how they eat it in Laos. It’s actually very nice, I might have cucumber like this all the time at home.
We do a loop and walk as far as the bamboo bridge. It’s pretty to see it at night with the lights.
Day 4: We get up at 5am to see the monks walk from their monasteries to Coll alms. The daily ritual is called Tak Bat (morning alms) and involves people placing food and personal care items into the alms bowls of the passing monks. This tradition has gone on for centuries but from what we observed, I think this has lost some (or dare I say most) of it’s true meaning. I accept that I (as a tourist) am part of the reason for that, but it feels like an event for the tourists.
We see tourists line the streets sitting on tiny plastic chairs with food ready to give to the monks. Sellers are everywhere ready to sell you more alms. Then the monks arrive, always in silence and in a steady row. We see their bowls overflowing but they continue to accept the alms offered. But having just received alms, from the tourists lining the streets, they drop them into a large open basket at the end of the row of chairs. It looks like people are selling tourists food to give to the monks and then the monks give it back to the them… hmmm maybe the baskets are for poor people who the monks share their food with… I’m generally not cynical about these things so I really hope I’m right that they’re giving away the alms to the poor.
A little further up we see what appears to be some local people giving money joysticks and praying – now that looks a little more authentic.
We probably didn’t need to up this early but we do see the whole thing play out.. from setting up the seats, selling the offerings and the clean up afterward. Bizarre. We head back to the hotel for an early breakfast (it’s not even 6:30am) and then go back to sleep for a while.
Late morning we take a wander to some local wats. One of them apparently has a Buddha with the huge Thai ears – I’m keen to see him. Alas they’re closed… guidebooks do lie! Beautiful to see from the outside though.
We explore a bit further afield and see the monument of President Souphanouvong
It’s time for some noodle soup… this time with crispy pork – it may be the best yet!
We continue our exploring and pass a large supermarket which is called JC’s. We have to take a look inside. It has absolutely everything so we pick up some local wine (dying to know what this tastes like) and some more odd flavoured crisps!
The weather was forecast to rain today so we purposely left our visit to the palace complex which is now the museum in case we needed to be indoors..… no rain came!
There are no photos allowed inside but we see the rooms where the royal family lived and lots of treasures they accumulated, in part gifts from other nations. We continue our ramble and find yet more temples to view… there is no end to them. (I mean that in a good way!)
We stay on the peninsula and watch the sunset from a bar with a view… it’s lovely and we have a few drinks to cheers our last night in Laos (or is it!).
We spotted a restaurant we like the look of around the corner so head there for our final Laos meal. As ever we are delighted with the feast. We have sausage, laab (the minced pork salad), fried rice with shrimp and some stir fry vegetables – they really do veggies well in this town.
Tomorrow we are due to fly to Bangkok and I leave at 2am so we’ve picked an area that sits on a canal and has a night market, a temple and a reclining Buddha and we plan to visit that before I head to the airport and Shane says overnight before flying on his onward journey the next day.
On Saturday morning Shane takes a look at the airport departures online and can’t find our flight. He soon realises that it actually left yesterday!!! Oh crap! I booked this one and before we met in Singapore I received a change of itinerary email which I read as a change in the time of the flight…. when we looked again it was also a change to the date (which was in small font and not highlighted at all)….. we had both missed it – not like us and a pretty big boo boo… I jump out of bed sick to my stomach but Shane is already sourcing other flights… Unfortunately Luang Prabang is tiny so we don’t have a lot of choice. There seems to be a flight to Bangkok at 12:15 (it’s currently 9am!) so we try to book it but there’s only one seat available. I book it for me as we don’t want me to miss my flight home and Shane has a little more wiggle room as he’s not leaving for Sydney until the next day. What a balls up. I have to leave him in Luang Prabang and go to Bangkok by myself…. I’m gutted 😩
I let the hotel know I need a car to the airport and that Shane needs to stay for another night (thankfully the room is free and he can stay put), pack fairly quickly and I’m off to the airport.
It’s a short 10/15 minute journey to the airport and costs anything from €2.75 to €8. It’s so small and has very little in it. When I get to the checkin desk, the guy checks me in, takes my bag and then says “are you aware the flight is delayed until 3pm”… that’s 4 hours from now! Well I’ve held it together this morning but now I’m ready for a little cry. I’m too sad to hang around this airport for that long so I get on the WI-FI and eventually get Shane (he was out exploring so had no cover) and we agree I’ll find some mode of transport from the airport and get back to town for a final visit to a Buddha, lunch or anything for a couple of hours….
Well that worked out great we visited two wats that we hadn’t managed to get to and sat in a nice cafe for an hour before I jumped in a tuk tuk and headed to the airport for the second time. The second goodbye is never as hard as the first. 😁
A little reflection on this trip. I never got sick and I barely got bitten so that’s a win. Yes we made a boo boo with the flight change but we figured it out with no drama (Shane doesn’t do drama) and I’m thankful for that… although the credit card is getting a bigger hit than planned – I don’t think travel insurance covers for being stupid 😳. Laos you have been fantastic and we enjoyed it all. Bon Voyage for now!
odohertyelaine 