Luang Prabang is a tourist town that has lots in common with Banff, Jasper and other tourist towns we've been to. There are plenty of things to do both in town and nearby. The main street is crowded with restaurants, cafes and tour operators.
There are many things that make Luang Prabang different from a "normal" tourist town. You won't find a McDonalds, Starbucks or any other western restaurant chain. The town has a midnight curfew for both locals and visitors. There are very few bars and none of the bad stuff that goes along with bars (drunks; loud cars; etc.).
We think there are two reasons why Luang Prabang is different. First, tourism is a fairly new industry so Starbucks and others haven't found it and turned it into a highly commercialized place like Cancun. Second and more importantly, Luang Prabang is a very religious town.
Luang Prabang is home to 30 Buddhist temples and hundreds of monks and novices (boys under 20 years old who are training to be monks). They are very important to the town and consideration has been given to them as the town's tourism industry has developed. For example, hotels near the temples are not allowed to have swimming pools in order to keep bikini-clad tourists away from the monks.
You can see the strong connection between the community and the monks each day in an alms giving ceremony. Monks and novices walk through town each morning and receive food from locals. Tourists are welcome to participate and Vanessa did one morning.
We didn't try to visit all 30 temples (called wats) in Luang Prabang but we checked out a few. Here are photos from Wat Xieng Thong which is the oldest wat in town (almost 500 years old) and Wat Haw Kham which is the most ornate.
Here are a few other photos from around town.
We also ventured outside of town a couple times. Our first trip was to Kuang Si Falls.
Our second trip was an elephant riding adventure. We both got to ride an elephant for 45 minutes and then we rode them down to the river so they could cool off.
It was lots of fun to ride the elephants and we got plenty of great photos but we were disappointed with the elephants' living conditions. We naively thought that it would be the same as Africa where the elephants have lots of room to roam and have trainers who clearly care for them. This wasn't the case. The elephants weren't abused but there certainly wasn't the love that we saw in Africa.
Luang Prabang was our second nice surprise in a row. Like Cambodia, we didn't have any expectations before we got there. What we found were very friendly people, plenty of good food and fun and a great vacation experience.
Vanessa and Blake
There are many things that make Luang Prabang different from a "normal" tourist town. You won't find a McDonalds, Starbucks or any other western restaurant chain. The town has a midnight curfew for both locals and visitors. There are very few bars and none of the bad stuff that goes along with bars (drunks; loud cars; etc.).
We think there are two reasons why Luang Prabang is different. First, tourism is a fairly new industry so Starbucks and others haven't found it and turned it into a highly commercialized place like Cancun. Second and more importantly, Luang Prabang is a very religious town.
Luang Prabang is home to 30 Buddhist temples and hundreds of monks and novices (boys under 20 years old who are training to be monks). They are very important to the town and consideration has been given to them as the town's tourism industry has developed. For example, hotels near the temples are not allowed to have swimming pools in order to keep bikini-clad tourists away from the monks.
You can see the strong connection between the community and the monks each day in an alms giving ceremony. Monks and novices walk through town each morning and receive food from locals. Tourists are welcome to participate and Vanessa did one morning.
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| Vanessa giving alms (handful of sticky rice) to a monk |
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| Some of the novices were really young - this boy was about 12 years old |
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| Monks stream by for about 20 minutes |
We didn't try to visit all 30 temples (called wats) in Luang Prabang but we checked out a few. Here are photos from Wat Xieng Thong which is the oldest wat in town (almost 500 years old) and Wat Haw Kham which is the most ornate.
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| Wat Xieng Thong - getting a facelift after 500 years |
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| An ornate carriage used for funerals |
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| Wat Haw Kham - the gold gleams in the sun |
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| Entrance to the wat |
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| Serpents guard the entrance to the wat |
Here are a few other photos from around town.
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| There's a large market each night in the centre of town |
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| The market after the sun goes down - the market runs several blocks |
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| The beginning of a beautiful sunset we watched from the centre of town |
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| Lots of colours came out as the sun went down |
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| The colours kept coming even after the sun went down |
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| One of the very cute locals |
We also ventured outside of town a couple times. Our first trip was to Kuang Si Falls.
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| Us at one of the smaller falls |
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| Us at the biggest set of falls |
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| The water is an amazing blue |
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| Rice fields we passed on the way back to town |
Our second trip was an elephant riding adventure. We both got to ride an elephant for 45 minutes and then we rode them down to the river so they could cool off.
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| Blake looking cool like he's done this a thousand times |
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| Us headed for the river |
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| Vanessa and her guide are about to get soaked |
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| Vanessa showing off her balance |
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| The four of us after having a bath |
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| It's not easy to get off an elephant |
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| All smiles after we were done |
It was lots of fun to ride the elephants and we got plenty of great photos but we were disappointed with the elephants' living conditions. We naively thought that it would be the same as Africa where the elephants have lots of room to roam and have trainers who clearly care for them. This wasn't the case. The elephants weren't abused but there certainly wasn't the love that we saw in Africa.
Luang Prabang was our second nice surprise in a row. Like Cambodia, we didn't have any expectations before we got there. What we found were very friendly people, plenty of good food and fun and a great vacation experience.
Vanessa and Blake
