Laos – the sweet, the savoury and the sour
I hear the familiar instructions from the pilot “Cabin crew prepare the seats for landing” … As the land below me slowly comes closer and closer into view, I smile to myself. I am European through and through – yet I know I’ve landed ‘home’ in my beloved Asia. It’s the moist air filled with the scent of tropical flowers, palm trees swaying in the gentle breeze, rice fields scattered over the surrounding hills and ancient Buddhist pagodas.
LHR via Bangkok SUVARNABHUMI airport to LAOS
Started in a half empty Emirates BC lounge with a direct view of our A380 plane – our home for the next 17 hours (incl. stopover in Dubai). The lounge is absolutely massive and very elegantly appointed, lots of delicious food choices – grilled goats cheese salad washed down by champagne was the perfect way to get into the holiday mood for me. There are no direct flights from Europe so to get to Laos you will need to get to one of the Asian hubs and then change planes. We flew via Dubai to Bangkok and then continued to Luang Prabang (LP) on a propeller plane with Bangkok Airways – Asia’s boutique airline as the tagline goes. It’s one of those tiny planes with a 2 by 2 seat config. The journey takes just under 2 hours from Bangkok yet we were served food with drinks. You don’t need to arrange any visa ahead of your travels – Laos visa can be obtained on arrival for US$35 and you will need 2 photographs.
It might be one of the poorest countries in the world yet Luang Prabang is most definitely not a budget traveller type of place – possibly not helped by the fact that it’s got the UNESCO world heritage site status.
The Sweet … and grace
Yes, you are in Asia but the French influence can certainly be felt everywhere around you with its colonial buildings and cosy bakeries with fresh baguettes, cakes and coffees. I can’t get enough of its cuteness. It’s almost as if you stepped back in a time-warp – the city is wonderfully well preserved.
If I was to come up with just one word to describe LP it would have to be – ‘grace’ – it’s a place where you pause and reflect whilst sipping on some wine or Lao beer on the palm-fringed river bank. This is where the two rivers Mekong and the Nam Khan meet and carve their way around the jungle-covered hills and rock formations and create a little peninsula on which Luang Prabang is built. There’s a dozen little bridges, some sturdy, some as thin as a bamboo stick. Most of the fragile ones are swept away each year in floods. The LP’s citizens patiently rebuild these time and time again before the water takes them down a year later.
With our accommodation came push bikes. Our hotel, Sunset Villa by Burasari , was a good 20-25 minute’s walk from the centre of LP so bikes came in very handy. In hindsight it would have been better to stay in town, but on the other hand we got to see a more authentic side of LP. The hotel was set in a lovely garden full of frangipani trees, bright-coloured flowers and an amazing swimming pool overlooking the river. Our breakfast was served on our terrace every morning from where we could observe the life on the river. It was a great and relaxing place to stay especially after a full day of sightseeing.
In December the weather was really lovely, although the temperature dropped quite significantly shortly after the sun went down. Mornings were quite chilly too, but the days got progressively hot with brilliant sunshine and bright blue sky.
Temples temples temples
You have to visit the temples! Even if you don’t care that much for this type of thing. If you only visit one temple in LP make it to the Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham – it’s the most picturesque and elaborate.
We utilised our bikes for some temple-hopping and temples there are a plenty for such a small town. My favourite was the Royal Palace with Haw Pha Bang temple. It is situated right in the centre of LP and the night market is set out in front of it after 5pm. Have I mentioned that you have to visit the temples yet?
Other temples and monasteries we enjoyed were Wat Xien Muang, Wat Xienthong, That Makmo pagoda and Wat Mahathat. Some 3km outside of the centre, there’s a lovely pagoda towering lonely above the city – Wat Phon Phao. There was not a single tourist here, in fact there was not a single human soul at this temple. After our exhausting bike ride, we parked up by the river at the View Point Cafe for lunch and lovely views across the river .
Catch a sunset
Later that day we cycled to Mount Phousi for sunset – we climbed up high for panoramic views of the town. The entry point is from the main street almost opposite the Royal Palace. We didn’t arrange our entry ticket in advance and had no problem getting in, but go well ahead of the sunset time as you might want to avoid a major invasion of tourists arriving by tour busses.
It could be so beautiful and serene, but it’s not. If you value your personal space then you might want to reconsider or at least come prepared that you will have to fight for every available centimetre.. The more I travel the more annoyed I get with people who have a total disregard for their surroundings and all they care about is their stupid posing with selfie sticks – quite literally poking your eye out or even worse, taking jumping up photos.
For dinner we opted for the hip Bouang on the main street – I loved it but it was way too ‘innovative’ for Jon.
If you take an evening stroll, you can’t miss the night market that’s set up every night. It is one of the nicest ones I’ve been to, perhaps with the only exception of those in Myanmar. Stunning local produce is on display for sale from handmade clothes and scarves to hand-painted pictures. Every evening the people who live in the nearby hillside villages set up their market stalls with patience. Night Market, Sisavangvong Rd, Alley Behind Lao National Tourism Office (after 5pm – 10pm)
Buddhism & ceremonies
No visit to LP is complete without getting up at 4am to witness the Alms Monk ceremony – this is an old Buddhist tradition that has lasted for centuries. As the sun rises, the monks appear from the temples to make merit and also to collect food. I don’t know how it happened but somehow we ended up kneeling on the pavement along with the locals, passing the offering (rice) to the monks. They appear so suddenly in the shadows of the early sunrise and everything is so quiet. I’m holding my breath so as not to disturb the atmosphere, trying to keep my head down all the while worrying that I’ll be caught taking a quick glimpse of the young Buddhist monks. After the ceremony most of the alms are given to the poor street kids. It’s a peaceful and spiritual experience until a few indiscreet tourists start to quite literally chase towards the monks sticking their cameras in the monks’ faces. We return to our hotel lost in thoughts; by participating in this spectacle are we directly contributing towards demeaning this ancient tradition? … my mind is not made up on that subject.
Waterfalls make you happy
When I suggested we could cycle to the nearby waterfalls – which by the way turned out to be nearly 40km one way – I received a rather stern ‘no’ in response, something on the lines of being the craziest idea in this heat etc etc. So we hired a motorbike instead – £11 per day, and we ended up keeping it for 2 days. Foreigners are not allowed to ride after 8pm on the roads (just as well as there aren’t many streetlights) and you will get a hefty fine if you attempt to do it anyway.
Sitting at the back of the scooter and passing the hilly countryside, I was secretly very relieved we had not gone on the bike – I would not admit this openly though. The road here is paved all the way and it’s clearly signposted and you’ll pass a few interesting villages on your journey too.
There are two waterfalls in the vicinity of LP. The first one – Kuang Si – is simply stunning. I’ve seen some impressive waterfalls during my travels, but this one is in such a picturesque and serene setting. What is it about waterfalls? I always feel such an overwhelming sense of joy as I stand next to an awe-inspiring waterfall and through its moist catching a play of colours becoming a beautiful rainbow.
The entry fee to the Kuang Si waterfalls is approx. $3per person and you’ll get to visit the bear rescue centre. Easily a place to spend half a day.
Although closer to LP, Tad Sae Waterfalls is the less visited one. It is around 15km away, the final bit of road is only gravel which makes riding a scooter a bit tricky. You will also have to board a boat and cross a river to get to it. The women’s village where you have to park your vehicle is where you pay to cross the river. Once you get to the waterfall, you can also arrange an elephant ride, there’s a monkey rescue centre and a few hiking trails. This was another place where we barely met any other people.
We headed back and visited the Utopia Riverside bar for lunch – it’s sat above the river bank so you will hardly get better views, but it’s so crowded and we actually found it a bit pretentious. It wasn’t as chilled as I hoped for, it seemed that everyone was there for a reason – ‘look at me, I’m the hippest person in LP’z
Lost & found keys, Old Bridge & Spa
After our lunch we went back to our motorbike. The moment when you realise the keys are not where you thought they were, you start looking through every place and every pocket once, twice, third time only to slowly process that the keys are definitely gone … We lost the keys from our motorbike. But eventually we found them … as we were looking through the food menu at the bar before going to our table, Jon just left them laying there on the bar. Luckily for us no one decided to ‘borrow’ our rental scooter – phew!
Aside from the beautiful temples, the omnipresent Mekong river with its many bridges can’t go unnoticed. We couldn’t get enough of the Old Bridge which is now only used by motorbikes (we went across at least 7 times!). You have to go into your own lane which is lined by sort of bumpers. They are not high at all but would probably cause a serious accident if you went out of your lane over them. The views from the bridge are stunning, although only the bike passenger can enjoy them.
After bouncing all day on the scooter, we felt that a well-deserved treat was due and so we let our bodies enjoy a little coconut oil time at Spa@Burasari Heritage.
The Savoury….in pursuit of spirits and on how we became certified Lao chefs!
If it’s not the brew you enjoy then opt for the local spirit. Whenever we travel abroad we try to find, and taste, some local spirit. Other Asian countries have fairly tasty rums, but finding a place that sells any local drink in LP was a bit of a challenge. It took some major searching skills. Those who seek, shall find! And so our pursuit proved worthwhile. We had to actually take out my mobile with ex.com app to sanity check the exchange rate cos we could hardly believe that for as little as £0.89 we got a whole bottle of whiskey – I’m not a massive fan but this one was so tasty it actually reminded me more of Caribbean rum. We had to laugh though that our mixer (Sprite) came more expensive than the alcoholic drink!
I love Asian food and have on occasions tried to recreate some of the culinary delights Asia has to offer with various degree of success. On my travels I’ve been eyeing out some of the cooking classes, but always somehow run out of time or it didn’t fit into our plans. So when Jon said ‘yup, that sounds like it could be fun’, I was so surprised and shocked at the same time that I booked it immediately so as not to allow for any change of heart. There are lots of cooking classes, but Tamarind wins hands down. Unlike most of the places, they offer two types of classes at two different times – we chose the class that started at 4pm, this one doesn’t include a trip to the local food market, but we weren’t that interested anyway. We were collected from their restaurant and taken just outside of LP to a beautiful farm surrounded by fields and jungle. We cooked in outdoor pavilions by a lake covered by lotus flowers as the sun was setting behind the forested hills. Simply an amazing experience. We made everything ourselves and got to eat it all too! Best rice pudding ever!
The Sour…Darkness behind all the beauty
Whilst Laos might sound like a beautiful and spiritual place to visit, it is hard to believe that in such serene country, there’s dark past hiding behind the colonial and jungle beauty. Laos is the most bombed country in the world in all history. Over 2 million tonnes of explosives were dropped here maiming little children and adults alike and making the land unsuitable for farming. “Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bomb-load every eight minutes. The US dropped more bombs on Laos during this period than those dropped during WWII.” Our visit to UXO (unexplode ordnance) Information Centre was highly emotional. To this date there are still so many unexploded devices and the incredible amount of effort that goes into removing landmines and bombs is humbling and the whole experience left us pretty shaken up. I left feeling profoundly moved and with a reinforced feeling that yet again human beings are truly quite the worst kind of inhabitants on this planet.
This was our last night in beautiful LP and so we decided to eat at one of the most recommended restaurants in town – 3 Nagas . Our food was delicious if a little pricy for Asia.
Rain clouds started to roll in as if to signal that our time in LP is nearing the end. 6 days flew by but now it was time to go back to Bangkok for our last 2 days. 10 years ago was the first time we travelled to Thailand together so to honour the occasion and for sentimental reasons we visited our then favourite restaurant The Face , it is still the same beautiful little oasis in the midst of the Bangkok concrete jungle as we remembered, just with 10x higher prices …!
Bangkok time – on silk, river boat, heady heights and spring rolls
This must be my 6th or 7th time in Bangkok and still there are places I haven’t visited. Jim Thompson house was one of them. It’s a cluster of traditional Thai style buildings which now house a Thai silk museum. It was a nice little peaceful place to spend a few hours and learn about the history of the silk trade.
Later that day, instead of sightseeing on foot, we took a boat to the smaller canals. If like us you’re feeling a bit lazy or way too hot and bothered by Bangkok’s humidity, this is a great alternative to sightseeing. You still get a great view of the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun temples from the boat.
I chose to stay at hotel Amber Boutique where I stayed a year ago. It’s got a great location, close to the sky train, close to river, street stalls with tasty and cheap food, and it’s right around the corner from my favourite massage parlour too where after a long day of exploring the city, you can get a dreamy massage for your achy feet and toes. Last but not least, it’s close to my favourite Lebua State Tower, Sky Bar , it’s one of the highest building in Bangkok. The breath-taking skyline view makes up for the ridiculously overpriced drinks – a cocktail will set you back by £17 each, but it’s pretty spectacular. Having a dinner there? Forget it – I do have some sense in me, but when in Bangkok, a sky high cocktail hour just has to be done to conclude another amazing visit to Asia. Our taxi was supposed to pick us up in 30 mins but we looked at each other and no words were needed; we knew that we had to pop back to the street stalls close to our hotel for another portion of those amazing spring rolls as a take away before leaving for the airport. It must have been a sight to behold – us suited and booted waiting in line for the cheapest and yummiest spring rolls in town. We smelled of grease when our taxi collected us, but happy bellies mean happy mind and with that taste we left Asia behind until next time.
ITINERARY
- 2 Dec Emirates LHR to BKK 19:00-17:55
- 3-4 Dec Bangkok Pongsakorn Bloutique hotel
- 4 Dec Bangkok Airways flight BKK to Luang Prabang 9:25-11:35
- 4-9 Dec Luang Prabang – Sunset Villa by Burasari including complimentary round trip airport pickup
- 9 Dec Bangkok Airways flight LP to Bangkok 12:20-14:20
- 9-10 (11) Dec Bangkok Amber Boutique Silom Hotel – taxi booked 9pm
- 11 Dec Emirates BKK to LHR flight 01:05 – 13:50
Eyes On The Cloud 