We took a 4 day trip to Laos and the only city on our itinerary was Luang Prabang. We wanted a nice relaxing trip and I wasn’t too keen on going to Vientiane since it sounded just like the other capitals.

We decided to fly through Bangkok after looking at all the other options (flying to Vientiane and taking a 10 hour bus ride or flying through Vietnam). Turns out that since we flew budget airlines from Singapore, we had to clear immigration and through the check in process again for Bangkok Airways. But after that was all sorted and done it was good and flying Bangkok Airways was a nice change – every passenger got access to their free lounge! We arrived in Luang Prabang after 6 hours total of travel

Luang Prabang is a small quiet town but just touristy enough that everything you need is available including plenty of food options. On the first day we decided to walk around town, starting off by the banks of the Mekong river (since our hotel was located riverside). We strolled up to the night market which was also a lot of fun. One of the main roads in Luang Prabang closes down after 5pm and the vendor set up their goods. Lot of typical Asian market items such as clothes, scarves, lamps, stationary etc. but we managed to find a few good buys such as these wraparound cotton skirts for $5.

The next day we decided to hit up all the temples in the main area. We made it to about 5 temples total. Each one was beautiful in its own way. But since it was the rainy season, some of the paint was peeling off. That evening we ended the day climbing up to the highest temple in the city. It felt like an accomplishment going up all the stairs and seeing the beautiful panoramic view of the city from the

The third day was our busiest. We got up at 5:30am to see the morning alms ceremony. All the monks line and collect food in the morning from the villagers and it was such a great experience to see that in person. We then had breakfast (the breakfast at our hotel was so amazing) and headed off to ride an elephant and see the beautiful Kuang Si waterfalls. The elephant ride was really fun especially since the elephants don’t ride on flat ground. They literally go up and down in the jungles and especially when we were going down, we had to hold on for our dear lives… otherwise we would’ve fell right into the mud! The waterfalls are about 1 hour away from the city but were definitely worth it. The water is cool and beautiful and if you’re up for it, you can even swim in it to cool yourself off!

Laos was the last Southeast Asian country on my list and I’m so glad I made it there. The people were incredibly nice and it was one of the few places there weren’t people constantly bothering you for taxis or asking you where you were from. A nice change in SE Asia!