Laos – Luang Prabang

March 2017 trip.

Lunch, afternoon drinks with cards, the fake thunderstorm and a swim

We arrived in Luang Prabang after a relatively long commute from Sydney. We flew up to LP (as Luang Prabang is known as by the locals and I will call it that from here on it), and had to stay a night in Bangkok for the connection.  We stayed at the Sofitel in LP, which was a really special hotel. Originally, it is a century-old former governor’s mansion, which has recently been restored. It is an absolutely wonderful hotel, and can’t recommend it more!!

Fountains at the hotel | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/4 | 1/160th | ISO250

Morning Swim

On our first real morning, since we were both a bit off on timezone (LP is 3 hours behind Sydney, so we were up early), we took advantage of all the other guests still having a lie-in and went for an early swim before breaky. As I mentioned, the hotel was spectacular, and that included the pool. A few laps, wake up with fresh water, then to eat and have coffee.

Pool at the hotel | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 24mm | f/13 | 1/60th | ISO320

Dinner at 3 Nagas

We were staying at the Sofitel in LP, and they have a sister hotel and restaurant closer to the center of town called 3 Nagas. As part of our stay, we got one dinner at 3 Nagas included as well. We took a ride down into town and sat and had dinner on the patio. We did this on the first night, and was a really good decision as we were able to get away from our hotel and watch the relative ‘hustle & bustle’ of LP. And when I say ‘hustle & bustle”, there’s just a bit of tourism and that’s it!!!  Nice and quiet!! Also, the food was really quite nice!!

3 Nagas Entrance | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 25mm | f/2.8 | 1/500th | ISO12800

Tak Bat – for 5:30 wake-up call

Tak bat is an interesting phenomonom. The story goes, there are Buddhist monks in the nearly 80 temples around LP that walk down the main street at dawn where the locals provide gifts (mostly in the form of food) to the monks. This serves two main purposes; first, the local Buddhists give to the monks which is providing for the monks (and gaining good graces or redemption), and the monks receive food which allows the monks to maintain their vows of study and prayer. Recently, the practice has become a bit of a tourist trap, and many are speaking about the possibility that this practice will end.  In any event, it was a very interesting experience, and I tried to remain respectful and just witness in silence.

Tak bat | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 70mm | f/3.5 | 1/40th | ISO4000

The exchange | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 40mm | f/2.8 | 1/60th | ISO4000

Off they go | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 70mm | f/2.8 | 1/200th | ISO4000

After Saturday afternoon Thunderstorm, we Climbed Mount Phousi

After a bit of breakfast, and a nap after Tak Bat, we decided to see a bit more of the city (town?). One of the easiest to get to, and likely one of the most popular is to climb Mount Phousi, which is really in the center of town. Pretty much any taxi can take you to the steps of the hill, which I originally thought was 300 meters, but is actually only 328 stair steps to the top viewing area.

The hill itself is between the Mekong River on one side, and on the other is the Nam Khan River. Once to the top (after a few small stop-offs for areas to pray) you get to see a nearly 360 degree view of LP. This is really one of those must-do activities in LP when you visit!!

Sun over the Mekong | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 70mm | f/16 | 1/80th | ISO200

Tangor for beers after the climb

As you can imagine, after getting up the mountain and getting back down, it was time for some refreshments. The path down from Mount Phousi runs right into the main street in LP. After looking  into a few restaurants, we settled on Tangor, which was perfect in that they had a great street-side patio, cold beers and a nice snack menu. Highly recommended, and you can read through the reviews, but most would agree it’s a special spot!!

Beers after hike | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/1.8 | 1/60th | ISO1250

Night Markets

After a few beers and some snacks, we walked back through the Night Markets. The markets have everything from normal touristy kitsch, to jewelry and clothing, to food. I’m pretty sure we made it out of there with just a couple of t-shirts and a Loas flag patch (to go on a bag at some point in the future). Most people say this is a great place to practice your haggling, as you can always get better than the first price on anything. However, I figured I could afford the prices, and the vendors would get more than I would out of my cash.

While most of the stalls were relatively run of the mill stuff, the photo below is from a stall that was selling umbrellas, and had them on display in the most colorful look! Loved how these all blend together.

Umbrellas at the market | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/2.8 | 1/60th | ISO1600

Kuang Si waterfalls

Our hotel recommended for us to take a ride up to to the Kuang Si waterfalls and take the hike up the hill. We were warned it might be a bit crowded as we were heading up on a Sunday, and apparently a lot of the locals like to head up to the park surrounding the waterfalls and have picnics. We did head out early enough that we were able to get a few shots without too many people around. We played around a little with a 6-stop neutral density filter for the camera and were able to catch these interesting shots that almost makes the water to look like icicles.

Main waterfalls | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 28mm | f/14 | 8 sec | ISO200

Further up the falls | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 55mm | f/18 | 10 sec | ISO200

Lao massage

I can’t really show any photos of our massage, but I have to say that it was probably the best massage that I have ever had in my life. It was some sort of combination between facilitated yoga (think: someone else stretching you), a bit of chiropractic therapy, and a bit of deep tissue massage. It was incredible. I don’t know if this is a cultural thing, or if my particular massage was just out-of-this-world, but I highly recommend it.

Coconut Garden for dinner

One of the better recommended restaurants in town was the Coconut Garden, located right in the middle of town. I can’t say that I remember everything we ate that night, but I do remember enjoying french wine, and the steamed fish in a banana leaf. It was a bit on the more expensive side for LP, but I do recommend it.

Lanterns over the restaurant | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/4.0 | 1/60th | ISO12800

Cooking class and ate what we made for lunch

One of the activities we decided to take part in at the hotel was a traditional Laos cooking class provided by the hotel. In order to prepare for our lunch cooking class, we first went down to the markets first thing in the morning to get the supplies that we would be using later. The trip was just us and our chef, and we slowly walked through the markets and picked a handful of items – mostly herbs, mushrooms and other assorted goodies.

Spices at the market | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/4.0 | 1/320th | ISO200

All the herbs and greens | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/22 | 1/60th | ISO4000

Ground peppers | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/22 | 1/60th | ISO2500

On the menu – our cooking class

There were a few traditional items we made. A mushroom based steamed banana leaf, which had four different types of mushroom. (Note: I don’t really like mushrooms, but since we made them, I ate them).

Veggies for the rolls | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/1.8 | 1/125th | ISO200

Next up was the vegetables that would go into the fresh rice paper rolls.

Filling for the rolls | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/2.5 | 1/125th | ISO200

A look at the finished rice paper rolls.

Finished rolls | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/2.0 | 1/320th | ISO200

Our starter menu, which also included a lemongrass chicken ball.

The starters | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/3.2| 1/200th | ISO200

The main course was a coconut milk chicken curry. Paired with a French Pinot Gris, it was just lovely.

The curry | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/3.2| 1/100th | ISO200

Us and our chef / instructor.

Before eating our work | Sony A7R II | Sony 55mm f/1.8 | 55mm | f/7.1| 1/60th | ISO400

River sunset cruise

On our last night, we got on a boat to take in a tour of the Mekong.

Boats on the river | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 25mm | f/7.1 | 1/200th | ISO200

One of the more interesting sights was this boat, which could probably be translated into a water taxi, taking locals up the river.

Water taxi | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 70mm | f/7.1 | 1/250th | ISO200

As the sunset fell over the river, we wrapped up at our tour of Luang Prabang. If you get a chance to go, make sure to go slow and take in the city.

Sunset over the river | Sony A7R II | Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 | 24mm | f/10 | 1/200th | ISO200

Full photo album

Additional Resources

Before our trip, we used a couple of other traveller blogs and sites to help plan what we wanted to do. These helped us a lot, and can provide a few alternate suggestions to the above.

What do you think?