Laos – Luang Prabang

As the mighty Mekong swings its way through northern Laos, a tributary, the Nam Khan, no small river itself, sweeps around to join the Mekong at a 45 degree angle. In the resulting triangular peninsula sits Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage site with a reputation of being one of the most beautiful places in South East Asia. Here is the story of our 5 days in Luang Prabang.

The Town

Expectations were high coming here, based on many blogs and commentaries, and, as we all know, high expectations can often lead to disappointment. Not here though: everything about Luang Prabang is delightful, from its mix of Lao housing and French colonial architecture, to its golden temples, laid back bars and bustling markets. 

Its setting between the two rivers is visually beautiful, enhanced by easily accessible viewpoints from which to look down on the town. The Mekong is wide and powerful set against backdrops of hills on the far side, the Nam Khan swirls beneath the spectacular bamboo bridges (which get dismantled every rainy season and have to be rebuilt from scratch), the quiet town gratefully accepts its awestruck visitors.

It’s actually a lot more quiet than it normally would be, like everywhere else has been so far. The closure of the Chinese border through Coronavirus fears has decimated the tourist trade round here.

Luang Prabang has its fair share of temples, we visit 2 or 3 but after 5 weeks in South East Asia, the novelty is wearing thin and we mainly admire them from afar. The “Sai Bat” is LP’s other famous attraction, as monks from its 34 monasteries file through the town at first light in silence, accepting gifts of sticky rice from the townsfolk. This daily ritual is time honoured and was clearly once a moving ceremony to witness: nowadays it’s a little watered down with gawping tourists outnumbering benevolent locals. You still have to do it though; get up early and see it.

The former royal palace, now the National Museum, is probably the least opulent and most spartan royal dwelling we have ever seen, but still provides plenty of interest and insights into an earlier era. It’s interesting to note that the commentary tells us that the communist Pathēt Lao party created the museum, conveniently sidestepping the fact that, during the seizure of power by the party, the royal family in its entirety was spirited away to a secret location, and was never seen again. This was only in 1975 by the way. 

Mount Phussi overlooks the town, 300 steps lead the way from opposite the National Museum taking you a short but steep climb through the wooded hill to the tiny temple at the top. There are a couple of other routes leading to the top which meander through temples and an array of Buddhas dotted amongst the rock face. We take in the views, one side we look out over the pointed roofs of Luang Prabang and the mighty Mekong, boats seemingly tiny at the waters edge, the shadows of the distant mountains just visible through the haze. To the other side the Nam Khan River snakes through the jungle.  We hear that the sunsets across Luang Prabang are beautiful from here so we make an evening visit to see for ourselves, we wait in anticipation, the orange sun briefly reflects on the Mekong before disappearing into the haze, the sunset a bit of a non event on this occasion.

Kuang Si Waterfall

Just a 30 minute drive from Luang Prabang is the beautiful waterfall of Kuang Si. The minivan takes us through farmland, rice and vegetable fields, cows and buffalo before reaching a number of food shacks at the entrance to the falls. The short walk through jungle vegetation to the falls is pretty, imposing trees, beautiful flowers, the sound of the water combined with insects deafening. Butterflies everywhere, all sizes, displaying their beautiful colours. The waterfall cascades down the rocks forming terraces of pools. Pool after pool of beautiful aquamarine and jade water, streams flowing through the jungle undergrowth. We take a swim in the icy cold mountain water, it’s invigorating, the sunlight peeps through the trees , its rays dancing on the water, this is truly a jungle paradise.

Foodie Stuff

Here’s some detail on food changes from southern Thailand to northern Laos. Spicy is optional here and generally speaking dishes are not quite as hot as they were down south (although there are exceptions); potatoes, largely unseen in Koh Lanta, made an appearance in the Thai north but have now vanished again. Some dishes are still here (Pad Thai, Tom Yum, Khao Soi) but there are subtle differences in herbal seasoning of each. The main local dish is “or lam”, a pork stew with changing contents. Our first or lam was in Luang Prabang market, where rather wonderfully you choose your own raw ingredients from the stall, and hand them to the cook, who has the base stew soup boiling ready. You add chillis to suit your own palate. The other novelty is Mekong River weed; delicious in both as a spinach like veg, and also in crispy sheets a bit like nori seaweed. These days Laos cuisine has two other major influences, Chinese food for the many tourists, and, thanks to its years of French colonisation, baguettes and croissants are everywhere.

Before coming to these parts, we’d heard a lot about barbecued rat being a staple dish, but haven’t seen any that we know of. Until now. One barbecue market vendor has some very rodent like creatures on her charcoals, butterflied and on a stick.

“What’s this?“, says Michaela.

The cook hesitates and examines us.

“Errrr….baby pig”, she says.

Yeah right. Any pig that small would be an embryo, not a baby!! We think we know what we’ve seen.

And Finally 

Whilst in Luang Prabang, we have experienced two other “firsts”, both on Day 35 of the trip. First, Montezuma comes calling to wreak revenge and Phil loses seven hours of the day in and out of the bathroom. Then, as we sip sweet iced coffee by way of recovery, our first tropical storm of the trip hits town, suddenly palm trees are bent double, thunder cracks and rain pours off canopies and rushes down the street. It’s fun watching the townspeople deal with it.

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That storm was just a forerunner to what came the next day, the afternoon storm flooding streets and bringing down trees in a spectacular half hour.

And so we move on from Luang Prabang to our next destination, deeper into the Laos countryside.