Luang Prabang is top of any travelers list when visiting Laos, and for very good reason. The old town, located on a peninsula between the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a beautiful, charming and sleepy town filled with temples and monasteries, and old French influenced buildings along tree lined streets. I absolutely loved my time here.
No visit to Luang Prabang is complete without taking in some of the nearly 80 temples and monasteries located throughout the town. The best known is Wat Xieng Thong, located at the tip of the old town peninsula. Home to many monks clad in the iconic saffron robes, I was lucky enough on my visit to catch the attention of a young monk sitting alone in the shade of a few trees, who wanted a chance to practice his English. Half an hour later we’d managed to establish our names, where we were from, and that it was a very hot day! He also tried to tell me more about the various buildings and stupa’s located within the walls of the temple. Of course the most popular way to see the monks is during the daily dawn ceremony of Tak Bat.
Rising 100 metres above the town, Phou Si hill sits in the centre of town and provides gorgeous views across the town and beyond to the mountains. It’s a popular place to watch the sun set but don’t expect to be there alone, it’s filled with tourists very early. The most common ascent is at the night markets, however this is also the steepest way up. We decided to climb up the north-east side which is a gentler ascent, and which has many Buddha statues, the Buddha’s footprint temple (where there is an actual giant footprint believed to be Buddha’s), and a former gun emplacement used to defend the city, which you can sit on and have a spin if you want.
Natural wonders abound outside of Luang Prabang, and no-one can go past the beautiful and refreshing Kuang Si Falls for a swim on a sweltering day. I loved it here so much I visited twice, which you can read about here.
The night markets are a popular way to start the evening. Starting at about 5pm, the market stretches for a kilometre along Sisavangvong Road and is home to the largest collection of handicrafts in the country. Side streets and alleyways offer delicious street food; chicken and pork on a stick always a favourite for me, and of course I can never go past the fruit shakes, now with a shot of Lao Lao whisky to start the night!
Luang Prabang is a town filled with culinary delights and has something for everyone. At the night markets you can get some super cheap yummy eats, including an all you can eat vegetarian buffet for about $2. Joys Restaurant was my favourite place for traditional Lao food, where a group of us sampled each other’s dishes. My pork stew was beyond delicious, and the service from Joy and her family was the most hospitable I came across in Laos. Coming from Thailand it was great to have some fresh bread that wasn’t sweetened, and the baguettes here were sensational. The pork rolls were better than any of the Vietnamese pork rolls I adore at home. Just writing this is making me hungry for them again!
Luang Prabang also caters very well for the western palette, and the burgers at Utopia were hard to pass on. Utopia is a place we spent most nights. A bar located down a series of alleyways, it seems to be where most people end up at night. Sitting (or laying) on the cushioned floors, smoking pineapple flavoured sheesha, and meeting new people, it is a great place to end the day. However, as Luang Prabang has a midnight curfew, everything shuts at 11:30pm. The locals have found a rather interesting way around this.
Exiting Utopia at closing, the seedy side of Laos come out. Locals whisper in your ear as you pass “weed, miss”, “opium, miss” or “bowling, miss”. Did we hear that right? Yes, one of the most illicit things you can do at night is defy the curfew and go bowling, at an actual bowling alley about 10 minutes out of town. Here you will find all the foreigners not ready to call it a night yet, and hilarity ensues.
