After three weeks of adventuring in Vietnam, we left Hanoi and flew to Luang Prabang to explore an entirely new country for both Victor and me: Laos! Our flight landed at 9:30pm, so we weren’t checked into our guesthouse until about an hour later. Even though the flight was only an hour, it was preceded by a full day of exploring so we immediately went to sleep. But, I’m very excited to show you the wonders of Laos and its ancient capital of Luang Prabang.

The Morning Market
Breakfast was not included in our accommodation, but this wasn’t an issue because we ventured to the nearby market to find some nourishment. The Luang Prabang Market starts as early as 5:00am and runs until about 10:00am. Therefore, it’s very much a morning market. I’m usually quite sceptical of food markets because I’ve often found them to be very touristy, expensive, and perhaps not very safe (food hygiene-wise). However, this market felt wonderfully local! It was chaotic and full of foods that did not cater for tourists, which I absolutely loved.




From the market, we walked next door to the first of many wats, Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham (ວັດໄຫມ່ສຸວັນນະພູມອາຮາມ). A wat is a type of Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. This particular wat was built in the 18th century and is currently the largest temple in Luang Prabang. It’s a very grand wat, known for its gilded stucco bas-reliefs and five-tiered roof. Inside the red and gold interior sits a large gilded seated Buddha in the meditation position.
The wat is important culturally during New Year’s. The Phra Bang Buddha image is brought over from the Royal Palace Museum next door to the wat for three days during the New Year, encouraging an influx of pilgrims to the wat.



Mount Phu Si
Just across the street from the Royal Palace is a set of stairs leading up to the top of Mount Phu Si (ພູສີ), a 100m-tall mound. It’s a 329-step climb to the top, but the walk up provides spectacular views.


At the very top is a 24m gilded stupa called That Chomsi (ທາດຈອມສີ). From here you can see the city far and wide.


Temples and stupas stud the sides of Mount Phu Si, which rises from the very centre of Luang Prabang. We came across Wat Tham Phu Si, a wat carved around a large rock.


We then ran into an interesting temple called Wat Phra Bat Nua. It has a miniature shrine that protects Buddha’s footprint. You can take a peek inside the shrine to see, though I was quite surprised to see the footprint being one meter long! The presence of a Buddha footprint is supposed to mark the fact that the Buddha’s knowledge has reached this place.

On the way down the mountain, we came across two more wats. The first, Wat Siphoutthabat Thippharam (ວັດສີພຸດທະບາດ, pictured on the left below), was founded in 1851 as Wat Pa Khe, meaning “Temple of the Jolcham Oak Tree Forest”. It was founded to celebrate the dispatch of Lao emissaries to Kunming (the capital of Yunan, China) by King Chantharath. In the 1940s, three wats, including the wat I just mentioned above (Wat Phra Bat Nua) were brought together as Wat Siphoutthabat, meaning “Temple of the Buddha’s Footprint”. It was named after the Buddha’s footprint found in the rock on Mount Phu Si and can be reached directly via the staircase behind the wat. The gold-coloured chedi (stupa) at the front of the sim (central shrine hall of a Laotian temple) is believed to contain the ashes of King Chantharat.
The second wat, Wat Pa Phai (pictured on the right below), means the “Monastery of the Bamboo Forest”. There is an elegant mural painting over the main entrance showing scenes from the life of the Buddha. The main entrance to the sim is richly gilded gold leaf and studded with glass mosaic work.


While we exited Mount Phu Si via the eastern exit, we walked back around to where we started so that we could visit the Royal Palace. The former Royal Palace was built in 1904 and was the home of King Sisvang Vong. The palace combines traditional Lao and French architecture and interior design. The inside is now a museum, displaying various royal items and gifts from other countries. Footwear and photography are prohibited inside, and you must leave your bags in a locker room. It’s definitely worth a walk-through as most of the rooms have been preserved in exactly the manner in which they would’ve been used.
The most important treasure is here, within the temple Wat Ho Pha Bang (ວ້ດຫໍພະບາງ), in the southeast corner of the palace complex. It contains the Pha Bang, an 83cm-tall gold-alloy Buddha. The wat was solely designed to house the Buddha, as apparently it had been moved around a lot throughout the country so a permanent home was needed. Again, no photography is allowed inside, but I was able to capture a photo of the wat from the outside.

Mekong Riverfront
A wonderful part of Luang Prabang to explore is the streets and passageways that make up the Mekong Riverfront area. This area is truly charming as the main street has many cafes, shops and restaurants facing the river, oftentimes having seating across the street along the riverside. The architecture has a mix of Lao and French colonial styles.

We really liked one cafe, Saffron Coffee, in particular. It was founded in 2006 as a viable alternative cash crop to opium for hill tribe villagers in Northern Laos. They serve coffee made from their beans at their cafe on the riverfront, a spectacular spot. They also serve breakfast and lunch dishes. We went here for an afternoon coffee and treat break and for breakfast one morning. While we loved this cafe, there are many other cafes, bars and restaurants dotted along the riverfront that all have spectacular views of the Mekong.



Near the riverfront is Luang Prabang’s best-known monastery, Wat Xieng Thong. The wat was built under the rule of King Setthathirath between 1559 and 1560. It’s characteristic of the Luang Prabang style, featuring an elaborate tree of life mosaic, intricately carved walls, small halls and stupas that contain Buddha images of the period and a 12-metre high funeral carriage.



The wat is within a complex of several stupas and three compact little chapel halls called hŏr. I particularly loved seeing all the intricate mosaic art pieces.



You can continue to walk for quite a while along the riverfront. Sometimes you’ll see street sellers offering all sorts of goodies. We saw a seller with several types of fruit so we got a small carved piece of pineapple as a refreshing snack.


A must-do activity is taking a boat ride along the Mekong River. We opted for a sunset cruise. There are several companies that offer an array of packages, like dinner and cruise, private, etc. We went for Sa Sa Sunset Cruise and in January 2024, the price was 195,000 LAK per person. I recommend booking your tickets in advance as the boat does fill up. There is a ticket booth along the riverfront that is difficult to miss!
I also recommend arriving at the boat pier early as it’s first come first serve in terms of seating. We arrived a bit late but managed to get two seats on the lower deck. Once everyone was on board, we set sail towards the sun. It’s a lovely boat ride down the river. They have soft music playing as well as a bar offering drinks and snacks.



Lunch Across the River
Okay, one more river-centric activity! For lunch one day, after exploring Wat Xieng Thong, we went to a restaurant across the river. The only way to access it is by waiting for a small boat to pick you up and take you across to a semi-stable pier on the other side. I believe in the dry season you could in theory cross using a bamboo bridge, but clearly any evidence of a bridge has been washed away by the wet season.

Once you arrive, you climb up a staircase to a beautiful restaurant called Dyen Sabai, overlooking the river. It serves traditional Lao food. We, of course, ordered some Beerlao and crispy seaweed with sweet chilli sauce (an excellent beer snack!). We also got minced mushrooms and steamed fish in banana leaf. Lunch here is simply a wonderful way to spend a warm afternoon in Luang Prabang.




Downtown Luang Prabang
Inland, Luang Prabang continues to show its charming personality. There are plenty of lovely shops selling gifts, arts and crafts, and artisan products, like Lao silk. There are also many bars and restaurants dotted around. There are several markets in Luang Prabang held on a daily basis, like the morning market I mentioned. There’s also the Night Market. It opens around 5/6pm until about 11pm. There are two parts to the market: food and handicrafts. We checked out the food side and there were tons of stalls selling all sorts of foods and dishes including Lao, Thai, and Chinese cuisine. We didn’t end up eating here, but it was a lot of fun to check out as it’s super popular!



Unlike Vietnam, I actually found finding Lao food a little bit of a challenge in Luang Prabang. However, my favourite Lao restaurant is Café Toui, which we went to on two separate occasions because it’s so good! On our first visit, we had green mango salad with prawns (Yam Goung Mak Muang), fresh local fish grilled with lad herbs in banana leaf (Ping Pa), spicy tofu salad with fresh herbs, chilli and lime (Tofu Larp) with a side of black sticky rice of course. We had even more sticky rice afterwards because I couldn’t resist the mango and black sticky rice dessert.




Another great restaurant in downtown Luang Prabang is Tamarind. It also serves Lao cuisine but has a lovely outdoor patio to sit and eat. Tamarind has a very tourist-friendly menu, which explains a lot of the dishes and how things work in Laos. For example, they explain that dishes are served simultaneously and shared by all. Sticky rice is the heart of the meal and accompanies each mouthful. They also offer taster plates so you can sample a wide variety of Lao flavours. We got a trio of salads, made up of chopped fish and herbs (Koy Pa), steamed local greens with sesame seeds and herbs (Soop Pak) and green papaya salad (Tam Mak Hoong). All three salads were delicious. We then shared fish in banana leaf (Mok Pa). It was served with a dill and basil sauce =, and various greens and veggies to eat with it. Delicious!


Our last meal in Luang Prabang was dinner again at Café Toui, and then we left very early the next day for a very special visit to an elephant conservation area! More on that part of our adventure later, but we thoroughly enjoyed Luang Prabang. It was quite a stark difference from Hanoi the week before. Luang Prabang is charming and reminds me a little bit of Chiang Mai in Thailand but with the beautiful Mekong River alongside it. It was a welcome break from the chaos of Vietnam.
Luang Prabang is relaxing and incredibly different from most Southeast Asian towns. What do you think?
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