Luang Prabang

We arrived in Luang Prabang at around 1 pm without much of a plan of what to do.  All that we wanted to do was relax and do a little exploring and enjoy our time together. 

We stayed at the Lotus Villa Laos at the suggestion of some friends.  Their website does not do them justice...

We stayed in the amazing room pictured above.  It doesn't have a television but we actually enjoyed the time without it.  They serve a made-to-order breakfast every morning and the staff are extremely helpful.  If you find yourself in Luang Prabang I would absolutely recommend this place!

Luang Prabang is a predominantly Buddhist area.  There are quite a few wats (another name for temples) around which you can explore.  One of the things you can experience is the alms ceremony at dawn which has been going on in Luang Prabang for many, many years.  The locals will wake very earlier to prepare rice and food to give to the monks.  This is something that happens every single day and if you wake up earlier enough you can see it all happening.  We were lucky enough that one of the areas the monks receive alms is right in front of our hotel.

Every morning around 6:00 am you would see this...

These are the local women waiting for the monks to arrive.  The small baskets at their right contain the rice that they will give them.  They just sit and chat and seem to catch-up with each other while they are waiting.  Then, when they see the monks coming one of the women will bang on a bucket to indicate that the monks are nearby...

The monks walk at a pretty steady pace and it must take a few times of giving the alms to be able to keep up with them.  It was neat to see but we I am always a bit uncomfortable watching and photographing a religious ceremony.

The main part of the city of Luang Prabang sits on a peninsula between the Nam Khan and Mekong Rivers.  It is a small city but has great character. 

There are only about four main roads running along the peninsula and then there are all of these side alleys (like the one pictured above).  It is fun to walk through the town and up and down these alleys.  It is a great mix of locals and tourists.

One of the best parts about our visit was all of the amazing food that we ate.  I never would have guessed that we would have had such delicious meals in someplace like Luang Prabang but man...every single meal we ate was delicious! 

One of our meals was across the Mekong River at Dyen Sabai.  In order to get there you have to pay a toll and walk across a bamboo bridge...

and then climb a little hill...

but the effort is so worth it for the fun environment and great food...

They even have a bunch of board games you can play...

The local Lao food is similar to Thai and Khmer food but has some distinct differences.  They utilize sticky rice that you eat with your hands and dip into the different sauces.  They also eat fried river weed from the Mekong...sounds a little disgusting but is tasty.  It was all delicious and we enjoyed every single meal.

In addition to the local food, they also have some wonderful bakeries.  Now, for those of you who don't know, Singapore and Asia for that matter are not known for their pastries or baking abilities.  I have found a few bakeries here in Singapore that do an okay job but it is truly okay at best...nothing better.  Luang Prabang on the other hand still has the French influence and their amazing pastries...mmm....I love bread and pastries...and I couldn't get enough of them...

The other wonderful part about Laos was the Beer Lao...

A large bottle of Beer Lao was typically about $3 each...a far cry from the $12 it would cost in Singapore for a Tiger beer.  And even better than the low price was how tasty it was.  I would go so far as to say it is the best tasting Asian beer around...

Now that I've been talking about beer and pastries and all that delicious food I'm a little hungry...a few more posts from Luang Prabang are coming...

Photo courtesy of Alan