Loving Luang Prabang

A beautiful 100 year old hotel, a hilltop wat, lovely architecture and great coffee. These are all the things that the French have given me through the lovely UNESCO listed site of Luang Prabang. The views of the city from the wat on the top of the hill are amazing. There is also a small cave shrine a little further down the hill, where Bec and I spoke about religion and Buddhism in a hushed tone, overawed by our tranquil surroundings.


The buildings here are all beautiful, and speak of an age when people put their heart and soul into building design, rather than being content with a concrete box as we are now. Even the window handles and door locks are beautifully wrought. The markets are extensive, although you would experience nothing new after seeing the first three stalls.



Laos-style barbecues are also a fantastic aspect of this country. The waiter serves you a hefty stone bucket filled with red-hot coals, upon which he places a metal hat. He then appears with one plate filled with thinly sliced beef and a serving bowl filled with cabbage, mushrooms, eggs and tomato; basically a million things that can be boiled in a soup. Filling the bottom of the hat with broth, you boil your meal over the hot coals yourself, while frying the fat and beef. It's the funnest dinner experience I have had in a long time!!




After appreciating the delicious crepes, coffees, and muffins that are in abundance here, I went out to Utopia with the crew I had met on the slowboat. Utopia is a lovely lounge in town, where the more active can play beach volleyball while the less adventurous can sit and chat, sipping beer in a woven straw hut perched over the river. Drinks kept flowing, and when the bar closed at 11.30, we partied on in a hotel room with a very cheap thinly-disguised ethanol brew and more beers. The night got pretty hectic, so much so that one of the English guys only realised that he broke his ring finger the next morning.