Luang Prabang is a cute little town that has figured out an easy-to-love blend of westernized, tourist-catering coffee shops and affordable massages, while still maintaining a laid-back vibe of a place where locals live and thrive as well. The main street extends down a peninsula bordered by the large Mekong River and a smaller parallel river, with restaurants and bars overlooking each water side. During the day the main street is quiet, with restaurants and tourist offices dotting the street in between massage parlors and boutique stores, with glittering temples and Mt. Phousi providing a view of the surrounding countryside bordering the way as well. At night, the entire main street is taken over around 5 or 6pm by an extensive night market of endless stalls selling hand-dyed indigo fabrics and woven textiles, along with the requisite t-shirts and magnets.
Some of the cascading pools leading up to the large waterfall. Look at that water!
The night market along the main strip of Luang Probing, with the (really pretty) National Museum in the background.
View of the vista from the top of Mt. Phousi.
A close up of the bamboo bridge stretching across the small river. They deconstruct it (during the rainy season) and rebuild it every year, which is incredible!
Some of the many indigo goods available at the night market.
We spent five days in Luang Prabang, but used a lot of the time for travel research and blog catch-up over coffee or happy hour cocktails. The two main activities we did here were a cooking class and visiting the Kuang Si waterfalls and surrounding wildlife sanctuaries, so I’ll describe those in this post. Overall, Luang Prabang seemed like one of the few must-see stops on most people’s Laotian travel itineraries, as many of the travelers we met were just passing through this one city on their way to another country. As a result, it is perhaps surprisingly well built-up and has a lot to offer for all types of travelers, while not feeling “ruined” or devoid of local culture by over-tourism the way I’ve felt about certain other spots (e.g. Halong Bay, Vietnam or Sihanoukville, Cambodia).
One of the cute cocktail spots where we spent multiple evenings doing travel research and working on this blog.
Racks of meat at the night market where we regularly ate dinner.
Rorie getting ready to dive into our night market street food feast.
Cooking Class in Laos
We continued our tradition of doing a cooking class in each country we’ve visited by finding a wonderful class from a restaurant called Bamboo Tree. It started first thing in the morning with our small group of 6 (2 Germans, a Swiss/Austrian couple and us) looking over a detailed recipe book and choosing our menu of dishes for the day. We each chose a dish for the group to make and I selected Chicken Lap (also spelled Larb, Lab, Laab, and Larp, and one of the few dishes native to Laos), a minced salad-type entrée with meat, crunchy rice powder, coriander, and kaffir mint that I really enjoy. [Editor’s note: Every other dish that Jess selects to eat is this lap. She mistakenly thought it originated in Thailand, but we were quickly disabused of that notion and learned that it is Laotian.] Rorie, choosing last and with a dessert missing from our menu, selected a mango sticky rice dessert we’d seen advertised everywhere. When he selected it, the entire group smiled with relief and admitted they hoped he’d choose that one. [Editor’s note: Gotta give the people what they want!]
We headed to the largest local market in the area, a sprawling area of open air tents for fresh vegetables, rice, and meat alongside a huge indoor market selling clothing, housewares, and everything else you would need as a local. It was the type of place that was clearly not there to benefit tourists – we felt conspicuously in the way as residents shopped around us, but I loved watching the activity. Our guide (the sister of our cooking instructor) took the time to really explain to us the different vegetables, herbs, and types of rice we’d be using (steam rice and sticky rice are very different, and there are dozens or varieties to choose from) and picked up a few products for our class and the restaurant’s kitchen while we were at it. [Editor’s note: As a truly authentic market, it was also filled with such delightful items for purchase as dead bats and live guinea pig-esque creatures. We were assured by our guide that she didn’t cook with those items and most city folks don’t; they are mostly eaten by country peasants.]
The super local market where we shopped for our cooking class. No tourists in sight…
Some of the questionable local…ummm…delicacies at the market.
Upon returning, we helped prep and chop the vegetables and herbs for all our dishes, and worked on some of the more complicated dishes like pork-stuffed lemongrass “baskets” (apparently a royal dish invented by a chef for the King) and fish steamed in banana leaf packages. We then moved to an outdoor cooking station where we were handed delicious lemongrass refreshments [Editor’s note: Non-alcoholic, but we were promised (and delivered) shots of Lao Lao liquor at the end of the class.] and took turns cooking the dishes we’d chosen. We had a nice variety in our menu, with some (like my chicken lap dish) hardly involving any cooking and instead relying on mixing ingredients together, while some (like the fresh spring rolls) involving table-side craftiness. Rorie was convinced that his dessert wouldn’t involve any work, since the sticky rice was steaming away on the side of the stovetop already, but ended up getting to do quite a bit as the dessert required caramelizing sugar and mixing in the rice and other ingredients for quite a while. [Editor’s note: While there may have been less labor involved with cooking mango sticky rice, this should not be taken as an indictment of my cooking prowess. The dish turned out super delicious and I more than held up my end of the bargain by making it all look very, very good.] The menu and the whole day were a success, and we left full and happy in the late afternoon.
Chopping intently because the meal isn’t going to prepare itself!
Some of the interesting pork-stuffed lemongrass baskets.
Carmelizing sugar for the super delicious mango sticky rice dessert.
Before we’d come to Laos, all we’d heard about Laotian food was that it wasn’t very good. After spending a couple of weeks in the country and doing the cooking class, I have to say it’s some of the best food I’ve enjoyed on the trip so far. It feels lighter and more varied than the cuisines of the other countries we’ve been through so far, and I really like both the level of spice and herbal flavors prevalent in a lot of the dishes. [Editor’s note: Agreed in full! I think Vietnamese food was more creative than Laotian food, but the latter incorporates more spices and bigger flavors in a way that I appreciate. Some of that may have been influenced by Thai food, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Unfortunately, poor Cambodia ranks near the bottom of our Southeast Asian culinary preferences (though it was very tasty, but just kind of limited by comparison).]
Most of the finished dishes from our cooking class. Not bad, eh? We’re practically Laotian.
How legitimate are we? We’ve got certificates to prove it. Also, checkout the mango sticky rice dessert in the picture!
With the rest of our motley cooking class.
Kuang Si Waterfalls, the Bear Rescue Center, and Butterfly Sanctuary
After a few days of seeing uncertain weather forecasts call for rain, we waited on heading out to the waterfall until our last full day in Luang Prabang, and luckily the gamble paid off with a beautiful sunny day. We hopped in the last two seats of a stuffed minivan with a few other groups of tourists and headed out of town on the bumpy, dusty hour-long drive to the falls. At one amusing point, our driver saw local policemen up ahead and immediately pulled into a gas station before we passed them, afraid that they would stop us for having too many people in the car. After a few minutes, he determined that they were focused instead on stopping westerners on motorbikes (apparently a popular way to earn money by fining tourists who never have local drivers permits), and we continued on our way.
When we got to the parking lot, our first stop was a 300-meter walk back down the road to the Kuang Si Butterfly Park, a recently developed butterfly conservatory started only four years ago by a Dutch couple who now uses it to teach local school children about butterflies and conservation. It was extremely cute and well-done, and I wandered around with my camera snapping photos while Rorie quickly found the free “natural fish spa” in the greenhouse and sat with his feet in the water getting nibbled at and chatting with other tourists. [Editor’s note: I don’t have any strong feeling about butterflies either way (sure, they’re nice), but this was pretty great. The premises were beautifully constructed by the super friendly Dutch couple and they did a great job of teaching us about the lifecycle of butterflies, including having real examples of chrysalis’ and caterpillars to show us. I was a big fan.]
Pretty orchid at the butterfly sanctuary.
Butterflies, butterflies everywhere!
More butterflies, for good measure.
Rorie soaking his feet in the fish massage pond and chatting with his new tourist friends while I ran around snapping butterfly photos.
We then headed through the gate towards the waterfall, where we passed through the Bear Rescue Center, a sanctuary for bears rescued from poachers. After observing some of the moon bears in their enclosures (they seemed to really enjoy their bear hammocks!) and stopping long enough for Rorie to pick up a shirt (more expensive than the ones at the night market, but supporting a good cause), we continued walking to the falls themselves. [Editor’s note: It’s pretty awesome that the bears were just an afterthought of sorts to the entire journey. The admission ticket was for the waterfalls and you got to walk by the bear sanctuary for free on the way to waterfalls. The bears looked super chill and like they were living a great life. I was/am jealous.]
Double decker bear hammock!
Kuang Si Falls is a series of waterfalls and pools that are a gorgeous bright turquoise from the minerals in the limestone rock. There is one large waterfall at the top, and then a series of smaller cascades and beautiful pools, some of which are swimming holes. After checking out the falls from shore, we decided to go for a dip in the cold but refreshing water, then dried off as best we could and headed back to our minivan for the return trip to town. The falls were beautiful and I’m really glad we had nice sunny weather for it, and the bears and butterflies made for a full, animal-filled day.
An amusing warning sign as you enter the Kuang Si Waterfalls. Shows what they (justifiably) think of backpackers!
The large, majestic waterfall at the top of the cascading pools.
Enjoying some of the awesome smaller tiered pools and waterfalls.
Couple selfie in front of some waterfalls!
From Luang Prabang we’re headed up the mighty Mekong River to the border town of Huay Xai via a slow boat trip that will take all of the next two days!
A young monk inside a local wine bar (presumably not to drink).
