4 Days in Luang Prabang

12/22/18 – 12/25/18

Hello! This is a throw back post of our trip to Luang Prabang, Laos. Luang Prabang is really well known for its thriving Buddhist culture. There are numerous and ornate Buddhist temples all over the city, and thousands of Buddhists come here to pray and study the religion every year. In this post, I’ll give a summary of what we did for our three days in Luang Prabang, and a review of the hotel we stayed at as well.

Itinerary:

Day 1:

Early afternoon: We flew from Kunming, China to Luang Prabang, Laos. This is a common way to fly into Luang Prabang. It’s about an hour flight with a one hour time difference.

Mid afternoon: Arrived in Luang Prabang Airport. The airport isn’t very big and is surrounded by mountains. We then took an airport transfer provided by our hotel to get to the hotel, about a 30 minute drive.

Mid afternoon: Checked into Le Palais Juliana. This hotel is pretty reasonably priced given the amenities, including a sizable breakfast buffet, beautiful landscaping, and a pool. It cost us about $70 US a night. More about the hotel at the bottom of this post, but in summary we enjoyed our stay. The only caveats was that 1) it wasn’t a brand hotel where we could accrue points and 2) it was a bit far away from the heart of the city.

Evening: We took the complimentary hotel shuttle to downtown Luang Prabang, where we strolled around the bustling Night Market. Here, you can find a lot of food options, including barbecued meats, sticky rice, and our favorite, Khao Soi. Khao Soi is a noodle soup dish with ground pork and tomatoes, topped with fried garlic and scallions. It should be noted that there are also lots of Laotian buffet options, where they have plates on plates of dishes for people to try, but the dishes didn’t look very fresh, so we didn’t eat there.

Khao soi – similar to pho, with ground pork in a tomato meat broth

There were also a lot of unique wares being sold at the Night Market. We’ve been to a lot of night markets where they all somehow sell the same goods (ex: elephant pants, owl themed bags, and Pashmina scarves), but here they also sold hand crafted lamps, lacquer ware, and beautiful hand-dyed textiles. I would say these items would be worthwhile purchases as I haven’t seen them anywhere else.

Day 2:

Morning: We took a half day tour with Green Discovery, where we explored the temples for the first half, and then they drove us to Kuang Si falls afterwards.

The temple portion was a really enjoyable experience, as we got to learn a lot about the history of Laos through these temples. It also was helpful to have a local guide to explain to us the culture and his day-to-day life in Laos. Our tour guide originally was in training to become a monk, but at age 18 decided to go back to normal civilian life. It is not uncommon for Laotians to go into the monastery for education.

The Royal Palace Luang Prabang

Wat Xieng Thong

Gold Buddha relics

Early afternoon: After touring around the temples, our group was taken via bus to the Kuang Si falls, about a 40 minute drive from Luang Prabang. The Kuang Si falls are a popular tourist destination, as it’s a 3 layered waterfall and the water has a bright blue color to it.

Our entrance fee was covered by the tour price, but normally the fee is 20,000 kip. There are lots of shops outside of the falls selling swim gear, trinkets, food, and drinks. The hike up the falls was relatively easy, and there were plenty of changing rooms and bathrooms for visitors. The water itself was just warm enough to swim in.

Evening: We returned back to the hotel and took a short break before heading back to the Night Market. I think the Night Market is worth visiting twice, as there were more food options that we wanted to try.

Day 3:

Morning: After breakfast at the hotel, we took a hotel transport to the Luang Prabang Golf Club. For about $80 USD per person, we got 18 holes, a golf cart, and a caddy for each of us. The course is well maintained by their army of landscapers. The views were particularly breathtaking in the back nine holes. We would definitely recommend going even if you’re an novice golfer, as there are barely any people there, and the scenery is gorgeous!

Late afternoon: We went on a 1.5 hour long sunset cruise on the Mekong river. There are plenty of tour groups that do this sort of thing. To be honest, it was a little bit boring and we didn’t realize that our cruise didn’t come with dinner, so we wouldn’t recommend.

Day 4:

Morning: Last day of our Luang Prabang trip! We started the day with a cooking class at the Sofitel hotel. Link to the class in Klook here. We were first brought to the local food market to buy fresh ingredients for our class. The chef really took his time to explain to us the different ingredients, many of which I hadn’t seen before.

Banana flower – we bought these on a whim and stir fried the buds inside

Our chef/instructor picking out the produce

Fresh fish caught from the Mekong river

Don’t worry, the owl is not for eating! Laotians consider owls as good luck omens

The white bundled stuff is dried buffalo skin, which is used for flavoring in soups.

Fermented fish for Laotian fish sauce. Laotian fish sauce is sweeter and less sour than Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce

Fried banana fritters

Flowers for the Buddhist offerings. You can see these offerings placed all over Luang Prabang.

After gathering all of our ingredients, we went back to the Sofitel hotel and into the kitchen. Our instructor taught us how to make four Laotian dishes: lemongrass chicken meatballs, bamboo wrapped and steamed monkfish, red chicken curry, and spring rolls. Everyone had a role, so no one ever felt left out or bored throughout the entire cooking process. We ended up making so much food that we could only finish eating half of it!

Afternoon: After the cooking class, we had a bit of time to spare before our flight, so we walked towards Mount Phousi. Along the way we came across this Bamboo Bridge. Apparently the bridge has to be rebuilt every year because it gets washed away during the high tide season. We paid 10,000 kip to cross.

Afterwards, we hiked up Mount Phousi. There is a Buddhist shrine at the top, with a lot of Buddhist relics along the way. At the top, you can get a panoramic view of Luang Prabang.

And that’s it! We felt like four days was a suitable amount of time for Luang Prabang, maybe a bit on the longer side. The only thing we felt like we really missed out on were the Morning Alms. This occurs every morning at 6 AM, where monks slowly walk down the main road of Luang Prabang, and people give out food (essentially breakfast) and blessings from both sides of the road. One day we will have to return and check this out. See below if you’re interested in our hotel accommodation in Luang Prabang!

Hotel Accommodations: Le Palais Juliana

Summary: Le Palais Juliana is a very nice option in Luang Prabang. It cost us about $70 USD per night for the standard room with balcony, and with the Citi Prestige 4th night free benefit, it ended up bringing the cost down to about $50 USD night. The hotel property is located a little bit outside of the main part of town, but the hotel provides a complimentary shuttle to bring you to the downtown/night market area.

Bedroom: Standard room with balcony and pool view

Complimentary fruit bowl

The hotel landscaping is very serene

Complimentary wine

Breakfast at Le Palais Juliana:

I didn’t take the best pictures of the breakfast buffet, but there were a lot of different options, and some of the food items changed daily. My favorite dish was the noodle soup, which changed daily from chicken to pork to fish.