Luang Prabang aka: ຫລວງພະບາງ, Louangphrabang

Not my favourite place in Laos, but worth a few days.

The whole French involvement makes for some beautiful buildings and amazing food. It also makes for a lot of French people (I love the French, but any nationality in large doses).

Markets were nice, cheap and repetitive as usual. The temples are quaint, and the views from the monastery are fantastic (I especially loved watching the planes land).

The best part about Luang Prabang is the range of treks available. Just like Vang Vien, there’s biking, hiking, kayaking, spelunking and a whole tonne of other activities. It just doesn’t seem as cool to come back from a kayak tour covered in filth when the rest of the town is having afternoon tea in white slacks.

I remember debating whether I should include Laos and Luang Prabang in my SE Asia itinerary. I’m really glad I did. While Vientiane was pretty cool, Luang Prabang is one of my favorite places. Concededly, part of what I like is that Westerners have moved in and developed some charming hotels, restaurants, and bars. But they have enhanced, not spoiled it. The city has a perfect mix of peaceful, rustic Laotian life and Western amenities. Outside the town are two absolutely stunning waterfalls. I’m not a big outdoorsy guy, but these are stunning. Each has beautiful, idyllic deep blue swimming pools. The town’s royal museum is surprisingly awesome. It’s a great place.

This is one of the world’s greatest travel destinations. It has it all. Beautiful hotels. Great food, both Western and Lao. Gorgeous, peaceful natural setting. Interesting culture. Good temple sightseeing. Lots of opportunity for adventure. (Take a boat just across the Mekong and visit the four temples there, and a huge cave with lots of Buddhas. Kids will run up to you and be your tour guides. Trust me, you need them!) Beautiful waterfalls just a short ride out. (You HAVE to go to Guangxi and you should go to Tad Sae.) Fabulous bars. A shockingly high quality museum. (Though small, the Royal Palace has some of the most impressive Asian art I’ve ever seen, in the royal gift room. It was also fascinating to see what different countries gave as gifts. The USA gave, among other things, a momento of the Apollo moon landing with moon rocks and a Lao flag taken to the moon.) Wonderful clean massages. Oh, and all of this at extremely low prices. Luang Prabang probably won’t remain like this for much longer.

Really chilled out town… went during the New Year and everyone was in such high spirits, atmosphere was great.

Laos was my favourite country on my recent south-east Asia trip, and Luang Prabang my favourite city.