Luang Prabang

What an amazing, beautiful, relaxing place! Lonely Planet calls it "the most beautiful town in South East Asia", and I think they're probably right. It was so nice to come to a quiet relaxing place after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. Luang Prabang is a town of about 25,000 situated on a peninsula between the Mekong River (the biggest in SE Asia) and a lesser river. It is a tourist hot spot which is obvious by the massive amounts of brand new guesthouses and trendy restaurants. But more than that, Luang Prabang is also the capital of Buddhism in Laos, and it is nearly impossible to set foot outside without seeing an orange robe clad monk. There are dozens of temples, big and small, scattered throughout the little city. Its such a laid back and relaxing place where everyone goes to bed early. Even the bars close by 11 pm. We loved Luang Prabang so much we ended up staying for a full week when we only planned for a few days (we hear this happens to lots of travellers here).

We stayed in a beautiful little guesthouse right on the river for $14 a night. It was wonderful: beautiful tile floors, great hard wood ceilings, nicely decorated and with our own big balcony. A place like this would easily run at least $150 a night in the States.

When in Luang Prabang, we did a lot of relaxing and just exploring the city. In Lao culture, stress is a bad thing and should be avoided as much as possible. This seemed to be our theme as well. We wandered around some of the amazing wats (temples), rode bikes around the city, ate great food, explored the night market, etc.

We spent a day at the beautiful Kwang Si waterfall with the bluest water you've ever seen. There are 3 pools of water where you can jump off the small waterfall, swing from the rope swing and picnic around the water. At the top there is a 100 meter waterfall surrounded by lush green trees and plants. There was also a bear sanctuary there where rescued Asiatic black bears have a safe place to reside.

Another thing that I really liked about Luang Prabang is that there seem to me a lot of people who are trying to do some good for their community. Such as the Elephant Village (see other post), the Red Cross (I got a massage there and the money went to charity... win win situation!), the Free the Bears Sanctuary and many more organizations, including a few to help the children.

Jason and I spent two mornings volunteering at Big Brother Mouse, a group that promotes literacy throughout Laos. They publish books in both English and Lao for kids of all ages. They disperse books throughout the country and try to encourage tourists to buy books to hand out to kids rather than candy. It's a great organization, learn more about them here. So anyway, volunteers can go there from 9-11 every morning to help students practice their English. We had thought we would be working with little kids and were a little surprised when we were greeted by a bunch of college kids. It wasn't what we were expecting, but we still had a nice time helping them and hearing their stories and learning more about their culture. A lot of them were from poor farming towns and their parents had saved up all their money to send their son to college.

Luang Prabang, what a wonderful place. I think it will probably stay as one of my top throughout the trip.