Sabaidee and Happy Holidays from Luang Prabang! Luang Prabang is a beautiful town. The mix of French colonial architecture, traditional Lao style houses and the many Buddhist temples together with the laid-back lifestyle is really refreshing. The people here are VERY nice, and seem very tolerant of the tons of tourists that have taken over their town. We arrived in LP during the peak holiday season, so getting accommodation was a bit tough. After arriving, we walked around town for an hour and many of the better places were full. And forget about any guesthouse listed in any guidebooks or listed online - they were totally booked too, and they charged an arm and a leg for a room! But we did get lucky and found the newly opened Alounsavath guesthouse that was quite nice, right along the Mekong River, and we were able to negotiate a more reasonable rate since we were going to be staying there for 6 nights. We were especially happy that there was a separate shower area instead of the usual 'shower-toilet combo' room you usually get around SE Asia.
Some of the locals and ex-pats here have said the number of tourists have really exploded over the last 3-4 years. This NY Times article even lists Laos #1 on it's top places to go in 2008. One local tour company manager told us that the number of tourists have increased 35% over the last year. It will be a tough challenge for Laos over the next few years to find the right balance between catering to the flood of western tourists and conserving their own culture and heritage. Overall we were very surprised that the locals are still very friendly, don't hard-sell us, and in general seem happy that we are visiting their town.
One morning we got up at 5am to observe the daily morning alms giving. This early, the streets were dark and deserted and we wandered aimless around for a while. But gradually from 6am we started to see other tourists walking about, some vendors trying to sell the tourist sticky rice to give the monks, and other locals slowly opening up shop. Finally, around 6:40, we saw a long line of monks in their orange robes walking down the street. It was really beautiful to see them quietly collecting alms - sticky rice, bananas, and some other food from the locals. It would've been really peaceful, however there were so many tourists getting in the monks' face that we felt a little embarrassed to be there ourselves.
Even though the US$ is tanking, the food is still a very good value here. We tried a Laos style BBQ one night and got a feast for $4.50 for the both of us. The best bargain we both liked is the sandwich combo at the local Scandinavian Bakery. 4 bagels & rolls, a plate of assorted meat and cheeses, butter and jam for only $3.50! Due to the French influence, there's some really good French dining here. For Christmas, we really splurged and had a 5 course French dinner at Brasserie L'Elephant for $38 a person - more than 10 times the price of an average dinner here. A similar meal in the States would probably be around $150. The desserts were freaking amazing. Frank had "Plombiere Ice Cream with orange flower water with pineapple sorbet, decorated with wood biscuit on Joconde biscuit layer, served with rosella sauce and assorted meringues". Shari had "Chocolate Mouse Entrement and Confit Orange Coulis". Hard to decide which one was better... So much for Frank's "Rice-only diet" in SE Asia (he thought he wouldn't find anything else he could eat here). Christmas in Luang Prabang was very non-Christmas-y. There were few vendors that had fake xmas trees and some lights decorating their shops. Some wait staff at restaurants wore Santa hats for a few days, and played holiday music, which was seemed kind of funny. There are no churches in the city to go to for Christmas Mass or anything like that, there are only Buddhist monestaries in town. On top of that, it was very hot and humid during the day, so we almost forgot that Christmas was coming! Frank also says that he missed reindeer (Rudolf in particular), making snowman, and spiced mulled wine, which they always drink in Berlin for Christmas. :)
The main road in LP, Th Sisavangvong, is full of businesses selling all kind of tours to the tourists. And they all tell you the "must sees" are Pak Ou caves, and the Tat Kuang Si and Tat Sae waterfalls. So, not willing to miss these unforgettable adventures we first booked a half-day tour to the Tat Kuang Si waterfall 32km out of town. Our tour turned out to be just a mini-van ride to the fall and did not even include the entrance fee. The waterfall though was pretty nice for sure... but all in all a bit over rated.
Next day we decided to try our luck on a full day kayaking trip on the Nam Khan river, including a lunch break at the Tat Sae waterfall. The kayaking itself was really relaxing. The guides said the river was a Class 1 but it was even mellower than that. There were a few sections where we actually got some water splashed in our lap. Even so, there was one incident where a kayak flipped over, which was a little funny considering the guide was in the boat. Frank especially liked floating by villages along the river, where people would just do their daily business - like fishing, collecting seaweed, bathing, washing clothes, etc. Everyone was always friendly and the kids would excitedly wave and yell "Sabaidee" to us.
On another day, Shari decided to take an all day cooking class. What was great about this class is that they started off the morning by taking the class to the local produce market, and the owner of the cooking school/restaurant explained the various ingredients to us. Then we returned to the kitchen, the chefs demonstrated 7 dishes for us, and we got to choose 5 of them to cook (and later eat). Together with Joe, my 'cooking buddy' from Texas, we whipped up dishes like Luang Prabang Salad, Fried Rice Noodles, and Lao Pork Casserole. Some of the dishes seemed very similar to Thai, like a curry dish, and also a Chicken Larb (cold salad), using familiar ingredients such as lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves, and also some different ones - like banana flower and rocket leaves. Everything was quite delicious and we were pretty much cooking and eating for the rest of the day!
While Shari was cooking, Frank went on an all-day motorcycle trip. He was dying to do another motorcycle tour since he had such a blast in Cambodia, but was running into trouble trying to find a rental place in Luang Prabang. as The government outlawed the renting of motorbikes and bicycles to tourists due to increasing number of accidents by foreigners in recent years. He did find a little loophole though. There is a company that rents motorcycles in Vientiane, and people oftentimes drive up north to Luang Prabang, and drop the bike off there. He got lucky and found out there was a bike that was just dropped off in Luang Prabang, and the rental office said he could rent it to drive around outside of the city! There's a bit more details to the story but Frank was able at the end to negotiate a personal one day tour together with Paivanh, the local store manager, to explore the back roads and gravel tracks around Luang Prabang.
The morning ride was pretty mellow. Paivanh took Frank out on a quite dirt road, stopped at an elementary school and then headed up into the mountains. Here he showed Frank a little mountain village, normally not visited by tourists, where about 500 villagers live. This is an interesting story in itself as these people were former opium farmers. Check this site out to see how one western guy helped to change these villagers livelihood (www.saffroncoffee.com). After lunch the ride got a bit spiced up. Paivanh took Frank on a dirt track not intended to be traveled by bikes. Some mud, a few river crossings and one elephant later they ended up in a small village. The locals looked pretty amazed about the stupidity to drive a bike up there. But Frank had a big smile in his face as the riding was just pure fun! Check the short video [tbd].
More thumbnails ...
10 votes 
This is a top pick!
