Em & Tola's Travel Blog

To get to Luang Prabang, we had to take the windiest bus ride so far on this trip. We kept going up and down mountains at painfully slow speeds. We also had to dodge little kids, dogs, cats, cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs and buffalos continuously along the way. It was a beautiful ride, but you could not really enjoy the view because you kept feeling sick for the whole 7,5 hours that it took to cover 220 kilometers.

After having stayed in such a great room in Vang Vieng, we were expecting a downgrade in Luang Prabang, but the place we settled on was even newer than the one in VV. We were the first ones to stay on our floor and the paint on the stairs leading up to the room and balcony had not even dried. The view from the balcony was amazing and overlooked the river that is lined with palm trees.

We had heard so many good things about Luang Prabang that we were sure that we could get nothing but disappointed. What greeted us was a charming small town with narrow streets lined with flowers, old colonial buildings, and small but beautiful temples around every corner.

We decided to take it easy and relax before the trip back to Thailand, so we enjoyed our balcony and took many walks through the town and its surroundings. We visited the most famous temple in Laos and the night market. The extreme heat made it difficult to be out for longer periods of time, but going back to our guest house to enjoy our balcony was not such a bad way to spend our days.


On our third day in Luang Prabang we felt like a dip, so we headed to the local waterfall. The pools where you swam where of the clearest blue colour and very refreshing. Walking up from the bottom we passed 4 areas where you could swim in smaller waterfalls and jump off rope swings. At the top, the main waterfall was packed with tourists, so we snapped a few pictures and spent the rest of the day on a log in a pool that we ended up having all to ourselves.


The next morning we woke up early to see a Buddhist ritual that sadly has become Luang Prabang's main tourist attraction. Every morning around 6 AM the many monks living in the city walk around receiving alms (food) from the locals. We heard a lot of horrible stories about the ritual that has occurred lately. Apparently some people have been trying to make a buck on the "event" and they sell old sticky rice to tourist that in turn "feed" the monks. The monks have then fallen ill.

The first thing that met us in the central area of town were some people trying to sell us food to give to the monks. We declined. The second sight that met us were a few monks fleeing from a horde of tourists trying to take pictures of them. Some even walked in the rows amongst the monks to get close-up pictures. The word disgraceful entered our minds as the caravans of tourist buses drove back after it all was over. We did not want to be a part of it all, so we retreated back to our guest house.

After our emotionally exhausting morning, we wanted to relax with a traditional Laos oil massage. It was the first time we had received massages from professionals, so we did not know what to expect when they started. Apparently a massage for a woman is very different than for a man because the masseuse really dug into me. Most of it really hurt, even though I must say it felt good afterwards. To our surprise an hour actually felt like an hour, and we left the massage place happy and a little tired.

We ended our stay in Luang Prabang with a visit to a temple that is on top of a hill in the center of town. The views from the top were amazing and we rested our eyes on the beautiful city as the sun set.

Tomorrow we are starting our long trip back to Thailand. Two 12 hour boat trips along the Mekong River await.