Well we did find the magic we were looking for in Luang Prabang. We are so glad that we decided to stay here to see how we liked it because now we totally love this place. Our first night in the ‘city’ we stayed by the Mekong near to the night market (which is fantastic by the way – so many beautiful things to buy and good food too!) and the morning market in a little place that we thought would be OK, and the following morning we went to see the Monks collect their alms, walked up Phou Si mountain to get an amazing view over Luang Prabang. We ended up spending a couple of hours up at the temple on top of Phou Si and looking out at the palm trees and green expanse of the town. There are no high rises and pretty much every building is a 2 storey house. After the mountain we wandered around the town for a couple of hours and by chance found an amazing cafe, Arthouse cafe on the Nam Khan river where an American lady Debra volunteers there as the manager and teaches local Lao with no skills or education how to serve customers, how to speak English, and really gives them a chance in life. An added bonus was the food was amazing and clean – they are one of the only places in town where you can get a salad that has been soaked in iodine and then washed in bottled water so you know it’s safe to eat. To eat lettuce after so long without it is just heaven.
Anyway, we spent an hour or two at this cafe beside the river and decided there and then that we couldn’t leave this area of town without finding a place to stay here. So we walked the entire street and looked in every single guesthouse until we found the perfect one – brand new French architecture, beautiful wooden floors and ceiling, balcony with heaps of plants on it, beside the river with a beautiful view of the river and coconut and papaya trees. So, now we are here we really, really love Luang Prabang and think this will be a great place to spend the next couple of weeks. We also had an awesome night for Tricia’s last night in Luang Prabang and tried some Lao Lao rice whisky with fermented lizards and snakes in it! We still might go to Vang Vieng as Eric and Emma think it’s amazing there, for now though we are really happy here. See our photos here.
