Day 1
Town Centre, Night Market
Day 2
Alm giving ceremony, KuangSi Waterfalls
Day 3
Alm giving, Morning Market / River Walk
Phousi Hill, Mekong River/Sunset
Day 4
To Kunming, China
**Highlight of the trip **
(1) Khaiphaen - Social Enterprise Lao Cafe
Khaiphaen serves Lao food. From a Google search, it had very good reviews and is also a social enterprise cafe.
The cafe provides restaurant training to at-risk youths. The servers were friendly and there was a teacher to guide the trainees as and when required. For our first meal, we ordered popular Lao dishes such as eggplant dip, Or Lam and Mekong River Fish and Coconut laksa. The food was tasty 😋
Subsequently, we had two more lunches and dinners and tried all the other dishes. <<Enjoying food and doing good at the same time 😘😋>>
(2) Big Brother Mouse
It is a voluntary organisation for students and others who are keen to learn English and do so through conversations with volunteers. On our first visit (second day's rainy morning), there were no students. The staff told us that the students usually come before and after school hours
We dropped by again in late afternoon (after school). The place was buzzing with students and a few volunteers. We sat at one of the tables, and greeted the students who were reading by themselves. They quickly said hello and then asked where we were from. We introduced ourselves, then we chatted and also read a book together.
We went for 2 sessions (morning and early evening) daily for the next two days. The sessions were interesting as the students were eager to learn English. We met another Singaporean who had been volunteering for three weeks because of the students' enthusiasm! The students would walk, bike, drive or be brought by their parents to the place.
From our conversations, I got to know that when there are not enough volunteers, the students would learn English amongst themselves. <<When I used my handphone to display photos for chatting, a student reminded me there is a 'no handphone' rule. I was really impressed not only with the students' eagerness and also their self-discipline>>
(3) ** My BanLao Hotel **
The hotel is housed in the former CIA headquarter building. The rooms were spacious and comfortable.
The hotel provides free transport services to the town. I liked my swim in the swimming pool after a tiring day out, and the free massage that's included in the hotel booking. The staff are helpful and speak English. It also provides pick-up from train stations/airport and car rental (with driver). I also enjoyed the hotel's quiet and serene ambience.
<<I will definitely stay in the same hotel again when I come to LuangPrabang. Thanks to Sally, who recommended this hotel>>
(4) ** Food **
There are many types of intriguing and enticing foods to be found in the cafe and roadside stalls.
We tried the popular dishes such as Khao Sao noodle in the morning market, the coconut waffles at the night market, the steam rice-roll (bought from the roadside stall across the hotel by HT 😊), and sampled the popular Lao dishes at Khaiphaen 😋😀.
<<I'll like to try new food, and also the tasty ones that I had this time around in my next trip 😍😙>>
Day 1 Luang Prabang
We arrived at Luang Prabang Train Station from Vientiane after about two hours on the train.
We took the shuttle bus service that could drop us off at the hotel. <<we forgot about the hotel's pickup service 😑>>
After checking in, we took the hotel's transport to the town centre, changed more kipp at a money changer, and headed to Khaiphaen for our first Luang Prabang meal. 😋
We headed to the riverbank and could see half-submerged houses and structures in the 'swollen' river.
<<We had been rather worried about the widespread flooding owing to the typhoon. Fortunately, LuangPrabang and Vientiane had not been badly affected>>
We walked up Phousi Hill from the riverside, taking in the tranquil view and also stopping by the Buddha footprint enclosure.
Night Market
We took the hotel's tuk-tuk to the night market in the evening. Many stalls were set-up along both side of the road. There is also an open-air food court selling a variety of food (but not much local fare), in addition to a food alley with more local food.
It was a good first day.
Day 2
The sky was overcast. We took the hotel transport to the alm-giving ceremonies. Then it started raining heavily.
The monks continued walking along the pavement for the alm ceremony. The hotel's transport returned to pick us up, and we went back for breakfast, and also cancelled the hotel's morning transport(US$40) to the KuangSi Waterfalls. Instead, we took the hotel's transport to BigMouseBrother(for our first visit).
KuangSi Waterfalls
We cancelled our morning excursion to KuangSi Waterfalls as it has rained heavily. The weather cleared by the late morning, and thus we decided to go in the afternoon.
<<Excursion = DIY rental of the hotel's transport (us$40) for the trip 😉>>
The journey took about 1 1/2 hours as some parts of the roads' condition was bad. We walked uphill for about 10-15 minutes before the waterfalls came into sight. The waterfalls were thundering over several cascades of steep rock surfaces into the pools at the base.
The water was also gushing down from stairs by the side of the mountains. Further downstream, walkways have been blocked because the water was rolling and submerging objects along its path. <<I was total drenched after walking across the waterfalls to take photos! KuangSi waterfalls is definitely different from the serene scenery that I see on the web>>
We climbed up the stairs by the side of the waterfalls to get a view of the surrounding.
Although the waterfalls could not be seen from the top, the view of the vast greenery of the forest was delightful and alluring.
Day 3
We walked to the alm giving area instead of taking the hotel's transport.
We bought the alm products and sat neat the wat. Then, the monks came out of the wats and walked along the pavement.
There were many tourists standing and sitting at the low stools to witness the alms ceremonies. <<Although there are displays showing the standard alm product prices, there were groups of tourists who were bargaining hard for a lower price 😑>>
Morning MarketThere was a variety of stalls selling fresh produce, cooked food, snacks and merchandise.
It was interesting to visit the morning market.
The NanKhan River joins the Mekong River at one end of the town, and the two rivers have a distinct speed of flow and colours.
We took a leisurely walk along the Mekong River observing the activities by the river.
After about an hour, we arrived at the congruence point of the two rivers. I could visibly see the slower moving NanKhan river joining the fast flowing Mekong river. It was a good morning walk. 😊
We climbed up to Phousi Hill in the evening.
Many people waited to view the sunset but I made my way down to the night market. << there were too many mosquitoes 😟>>
After I came down, I walked along the night market and to the river. <<Maybe I could also catch the sunset at the Mekong River❓😊>>
As the sun set behind the hills, it cast a splendid glow of colours onto the river.
It was a wonderful sight to end my last evening in Luang Prabang.
Day 4 (Day 7 of the trip)
We made our way to the railway station to do the last leg of the rail trip from Luang Prabang into Kunming, China.
Thoughts
Laos is still relatively not as touristy as its neighbouring countries. I enjoyed my short stay in Luang Prabang.
The rainy season - We did not give much consideration to the weather before we booked the trip. I only read about the flooding and severe weather right before the trip. Thus, we looked for activities that we could do on rainy days, and found BigMouseBrother <<a blessing in disguise 😊>> .
The road conditions are bad outside of the town <<reminiscent of Madagascar's road 😏>>. Hopefully the road conditions can be improved soon <<before my next visit? 😚>> .
I would like to visit the city again to volunteer at the school, enjoy the good food, massage and simply relax in the hotel.
On the same trip:Thailand - Lao - China Rail