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We Heart Luang Prabang! (+Photos)

Posted on July 26, 2007

We arrived in Luang Prabang with great excitement. We’d heard it was a cosmopolitan city - we’d heard tell of french colonial buildings and baguettes with ham and cheese - everyone loved it and said they’d extended their stay. Even the Lonely Planet guide wasn’t jaded and world weary when it came to LP. But would it live up to expectations? Could two people who’d just spent 8 years in one of the world’s most beautiful cities realllllly be impressed???

Y.E.S.!!!!

This place is magical. In one walk down the main street at dusk, everything i’d experienced in Thailand was relegated to second best. It’s totally beautiful, charming, laid-back, has amazing food, out-of-this-world shopping/handicrafts, and as a bonus everything is incredibly cheap (for instance, Gregor had a 2 hour massage that cost $5). It also helps that the place is surrounded by a gorgeous landscape of high green hills capped with temples and sits at the convergence of two scenic rivers (the Mekong and the Nam Khong). Like Edinburgh, the entire city is a UNESCO world heritage site with the official description calling it, “an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional architecture and Lao urban structures with those built by the European colonial authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its unique, remarkably well-preserved townscape illustrates a key stage in the blending of these two distinct cultural traditions.”

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time here, eating noodles, shopping in the night market, watching the imperial ballet troupe perform, exploring temples, riding bicycles around the old town, and just generally soaking up the atmosphere.

Today we ventured about 37km out of town to the Kouang Si waterfalls - a beautifully lush setting with dramatic falls and a series of clear green pools perfect for a refreshing swim. Unbeknownst to us, the falls is also an animal refuge of sorts for endangered asiatic black bears and one very beautiful indochinese tiger! The bears were all the cubs of poaching victims and the tiger, named “Phet”, was rescued from being sold on the black market as a 3 week old kitten (!!!). I’ve never been so close to a wild & deadly animal and it was an exhilarating experience. There is a lot of genetic distance between Phet and Astrid! We arrived at the bear enclosure right at feeding time and it was very amusing to watch the bears search the nooks and crannies of their enclosure for hidden bananas.

This is our last night in Luang Prabang and while I am ready to move on, I feel that I will be back here again some day. You just can’t love a place this much and not return.

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