Luang Prabang has surprised us in many ways. In 1995 Luang Prabang was listed as a Uniesco World Heritage Site due to it's extremely well preserved architecture, religious and cultural practices. This is what brought us here. What we didn't expect was finding every block of the main street has a adventure tour shop, atms, french cafes, excellent restaurant selections, spas and handy craft shops. Not to mention the abundance of English speakers! We had our translator app all ready and ended up not needing it at all. It's a quite, easy paced town small enough you can walk everywhere. We quickely found our happy place here with $1.50 beers and Lao Lao (local whiskey), $1.50 fruit smoothies, river front cafes, afternoon strolls through temples, and finish it all off with dinner at the night market. We're staying at a small guest house, Lakhangthong, about 10 minute walk to the centre of Luang Prabang on a quite side street. It's a fantastic little find, huge rooms and excellent staff. Only down side is the extremely thin walls and some frisky neighbours (if you catch my drift...). Though the town is small it's packed with things to see and do. We walked along the streets the first day wandering around seeing the sights until we found ourselves at Utopia. This is easily one of the most relaxing places you can land yourself for an afternoon. Over looking the Nam Khan River, reasonably priced drinks and chill vibes it's a fantastic place to unwind. We found ourselves here more than once during our week long stay. Temples are easy to find in Luang Prabang so choosing the right ones is key. It's easy to get 'templed out' when you've got so many to chose from. We visited Wat Xieng Thong, Wat Sene, Wat Mai and Santi Chedi Pagoda. The most impressive was Wat Xieng Thong. The temple dates back to the 16th century and is covered in glossy glass tiles giving a really spectacular image when the sun hits the temple just right. The Santi Chedi Pagoda took us on a 45 mintue walk with no side walks and crazy traffic. By the time we reached the golden pagoda we were sweaty, dust covered and tired. It was worth the visit but I recommend taking a tuk tuk to this one! The other temples were easy to find around the main street. We considered an Elephant Trek or Overnight Safarii. Everything was a bit out of our budget and we were happy enjoying the local sights so we stuck close to the town. We did find one tourism office that doesn't ride the elephants which made me happy to see. I'm strongly against riding elephants, there is a whole rant on animal misstreatment I could get into but wont in this post. Unforuntely elephant riding is still really popular here with signs offering cheap day trips everywhere. If you are interested in seeing elephants in Laos I recommend checking out Manda Lao tours. They offer half day and full day treking with the elephants where you walk beside them, treat them to bananas and wash them in the river but do not ride them. They include 6 hours with the elephants during the full day tours which is more than you'll get when riding. They include transportation and meals as well! We're doing something very similar in Chiang Mai this week so we decided to skip it, but it sounded amazing! You can check them out here; http://mandalaotours.com In between temples we visited the Palace Museum. It's not what we expected but was still interesting. You're not allowed to take photos inside and must dress conservately so we saw a number of people turned away or charged an extra fee to get in, so be aware! The inside of the palace has a grand entrance, waiting room and throne room which is in direct contrast to the very plain back of house where the family slept and ate. The throne room was incredible, it was decorated with mosaic pieces and gold trim. Outside the main building there is also a relfection pond with koi and a very ornate temple. Laos is a Buddhist country with over 200 monks residing in and around Luang Prabang alone. Every morning the monks come out around sunrise to collect morning alms, also known as Tak Bat. One morning we woke up at 5:15am and headed out to watch. It was interesting to see locals and several visitors setting up with a mat and their offerings on the road side preparing for the monks to come by. Eventually the monks came along in a long line of orange robes and collected the offerings. This daily ritual is one of the reasons Luang Prabang is listed as Unesco Heritage Site as it still performs these traditional givings. The downside to this is the mass of tourists getting in the faces of the monks as they went about their business. There are signs clearly posted all over Luang Prabang kindly asking that you dress modestly and view the monks from across the street so not to disrupt them. Apparently these people didn't get the message or didn't care because they were incredibly rude and disruptive. If you visit here and you'd like to participate in giving alms you can purchase appropriate food items at your hotel or from a street vendor. You kneel on the street and must not touch the monks or stand taller than them while giving alms. Whether or not you're giving alms women should wear a sarong that covers the knees and both men and women need to cover knees, shoulders and chest out of respect. After some sleep we headed up to Mount Phou Si for a bit of a hike and some epic views. Once we reached the top we were rewarded with a spectacular view over Luang Prabang and a small temple at the top. The way down on the opposite side of the mountain was also interesting with a small cave shrine you can enter (not good for claustrophobic people!) and a shrine for a rock formation called Buddha's foot print. It actually looks like a big foot print! After our mountain hike we were excited to find the bamboo bridge that crosses the Nam Khan river had been repaired in the short 4 days since we first saw it! It's not for the faint of heart but once we got going it felt strong so our worries went away as we crossed. Once across we found a great river side eatery, Dyen Sabai, with board games, Lao fondu and cheap beers over looking the rivier! What more can you ask for! One of our favourite things about Luang Prabang is wandering down side streets and coming across neat little eateries and pubs. We had lunch and dinner somewhere new every day and were never disappointed. One of our favourites has to be BroTherHouse, a cute little restaurant by the river set in a garden. They offer Laos BBQ where you cook your own meat on a hot plate and veggies in hot broth, absolutely delicious. The really awesome part is that it was only $10.00 for drinks and BBQ for two! Luang Prabang has exceeded our expectations. It's definitely a touristy town but it's not so overrun that it loses it's charm. Our favourite experience here has to be the Kuang Si Falls and Moon Bear sanctuary. Yesterday, our last full day here we hired a tuk tuk to take us to a local waterfall called Kuang Si Falls. The ride there was 45 minutes of hoping to god we didn't roll the tuk tuk on a pot hole. Our driver got us there and back in 1 piece thankfully! Side note: We paid 200,000 KIP (abour $30 canadian) for the ride there and back. According to a french man we met on the way back we over paid. When we considered the cost of gas we felt like it was absolutely fare however. Gas is nearly 1 USD per litre which is very similar to what we pay in Canada but they earn much less so it ends up being very costly to drive people around. This in mind we had no problem paying the fare. When we arrived to the national park the first thing we saw was the bear santuary on the way to the waterfall. The bears in this area, called moon bears due to the cresent shape on their chest, are all rescued animals. Many were missing limbs or had injuries due to snares and poaching. There is a trade occuring where bears are captured and held in cages so small they can't move. They are starved and deprived water in many cases all the while having their bile removed with needles. The bile is then sold to various markets for Chinese medicines. It's a really disgusting trade so to see the efforts here was really encouragine. The best way to stop this type of animal cruelty is to make it known internationally so it garners more attention and public outcry. The bears were extremely cute, playing with each other, some sleeping in the hammocks and enjoying a better life for themselves. After spending a good amount of time with the fuzzy friends we continued to the waterfall. The first few levels of the cascading water is all I expected to find. When I looked up this water fall on Instagram I only saw the area where people are permitted to swim. I dipped a toe in but it was freezing so we skipped the swim! We kept walking and as you continue further a larg waterfall reveals itself! They've built up the area very nicely for sitting and enjoying the waterfalls so I grabbed an ice cream and we found a sunny spot to relax. It was an excellent way to end our stay in Luang Prabang. We would have loved to see more of Laos but as we keep reminding ourselves we can't do everything! Today we're flying out to Chaing Mai where we've got some awesome activities lined up!
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