Luang Phabang

Luang Phabang is a beautiful city that is full of history and culture. The small city is centered around a golden temple at the top of Phou Si hill and is visible throughout the area. There are many active temples in the area and monks are commonly seen walking in saffron robes. Many monks come from the local villages as it is the only way for poor families to educate their children.

Rice wine and whisky with Snake and Scorpion for a kick!

Top of Phou Si Hill

Looking out over the Mekong

The area is also famous for their food, such as orlam, which is an eggplant based stew with many local herbs and is particularly tasty with sticky rice. We enjoyed Laos food so much we wanted to take a cooking class on our last day there, but it turned out we missed the sign up time! We definitely enjoyed ourselves dining by the Mekong during sunset. When we got too tired of Laos food there was always the Scandanavian bakery close by.

An anniversary photo!

We made a day trip from town to the Kuang Si waterfalls. it is a multi-tiered fall that has many pools perfect for swimming. Locals also frequent the area, so it was great to see kids showing off their diving skills as they jumped from rope swings and even some smaller waterfalls. The park also hosts a recovered bear home. These bears are confiscated from poachers who would otherwise sell them for the bear bile market. Bear bile is used in traditional Chinese medicine and is harvested from living bears kept in cages. although the bears were cool to see, it was unclear whether they release the bears once they have recovered, ot if they are kept in captivity. A slippery trail by the side of the waterfall leads to the top, where we got to stand close to the edge and look down.

Jumping off waterfalls

Look how tiny Rashmi is!

Besides being a charming city, Luang phabang also has a number of non-profit based organizations. these range from selling hand made environmentally friendly clothes from the hill tribes, to publishing books to encourage young Laos children to read. Many of the hostel staff in the city are youth from the nearby villages that are taking night classes in the city and working during the day time. Some really like to practice their English! Luang Phabang was a very pleasant city to stay in for a few days, and I would love to return and interact with the community projects. We left by slow boat going up the Mekong for a 2 day ride to the northen Thai border.

A slowboat like the one we were on

Cruising in a slow boat on the Mekong