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Travel Guide

Travel Guide: Luang Prabang

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UNESCO World Heritage city Luang Prabang was the third city that my friend and I visited during our week in Laos. We spent two nights in Vientiane, another two nights in Vang Vieng, and the final three nights here in Luang Prabang, which was definitely my favorite of the three cities we visited. It was serene and beautiful with good cafés and a bar that served a delicious spicy cocktail. It was truly a wonderful way to end an amazing week full of good conversation and exciting travelling experiences.

To get there, we took the most beautiful bus ride that I have ever experienced. It was over seven hours long, a bit crowded, and not as ventilated as we would have liked but I am so glad we were able to see so much of Laos during our travels. The country is very rural, very agricultural, and absolutely stunning. The higher we climbed into mountains and the more we were able to see, the more humbled I felt for being so privileged to be where I was, seeing what I was seeing.

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Like much of former French Indochina, Luang Prabang maintains colonial charm with a distinctly Asian vibe. Mopeds and bikes are the preferred means of transport for locals and many tourists, and tuk tuks and songthaews are easy to come by to get around. Also located on the Mekong River and surrounded by mountains, Luang Prabang is beautiful as well as historic.

We spent much of our time in Luang Prabang exploring the delicious Asian and French foods, coffees, and other sorts of beverages that the city had to offer. We walked through a very busy night market selling souvenirs of all sorts, as well as various fruit juices and snacks. Mostly, though, we just enjoyed being in the quiet outdoors, particularly welcome after the more raucous town of Vang Vieng.

By far my favorite experience in Luang Prabang was our trip to Tat Kuang Si, which I’ve seen described as Laos’ “most spectacular waterfall”. I haven’t seen all the Laotian waterfalls, but this one certainly deserved the top-shelf adjective. Even young monks were playing in the water!

Unsurprisingly, this waterfall came with a story:

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I have to thank an Israeli tourist who we met, too, for making this a particularly memorable experience. Moral of the story: My Hebrew used to be a lot better! I understood everything she said but responded mostly in English. She, of course, understood perfectly and responded mostly in Hebrew. Small world just gets smaller the more of it I experience.

As a UNESCO World Heritage city, we expected Luang Prabang to have a range of temples to explore, in addition to its incredible natural beauty. We were not disappointed.

On our final night in Laos, we climbed Phu Si Hill at the recommended time (shortly before sunset) to get a look at the entire city:

We passed various Buddhas and temples on the walk down the hill, which was a nice reminder of the values of this beautiful country:

I am so glad to have had such a relaxing, rejuvenating week in Laos with such a good friend. It was really wonderful to explore this country with a friend and get another perspective and ideas on what we were doing, seeing, and experiencing. We had great conversations throughout, which was the best overall part of the week. I’d happily return to Laos at any time – let me know if you’d like to come with me!

Travel Guide

Travel Guide: Vang Vieng

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The beautiful party town of Vang Vieng was the second city that my friend and I visited during our week-long sojourn in Laos. You can read about our first few days in Vientiane, the Laotian capital city, here. You can also read about our experience in Luang Prabang, definitely my favorite, here.

We traveled from Vientiane to Vang Vieng in a very air-conditioned bus. The ride took about four and a half hours. It rained for the majority of the trip and I enjoyed watching the clouds move outside the window. The landscape didn’t change too much as we climbed into the beautiful, misty mountains. We passed rice paddies, cows, some goats, and lots of dogs and chickens.

Like Vientiane, Vang Vieng is situated along the Mekong River. The town is quite small, beautifully located in the midst of mountains, and very easy to walk around. We spent both afternoons alternating between food, drinks, and walking and I do believe we saw everything there was to see.

As usual, we wandered past some beautiful Buddhist temples. No matter how much travelling I do in Southeast Asia, they never get old.

For our first night in Vang Vieng, we found a neat bar located along the Mekong River where the best available seats were hammocks! We stayed there for a while and watched the sun go down over the water. It was a very serene experience, despite the mosquitos.

We spent the next morning with a guide we booked through Green Discovery who took us on a short trek first through rice paddies and then through several caves, which were really neat. I’ve explored caves before, but never caves as dark and deep as these. We wore headlamps that the guide had us turn off at one point so we could experience complete darkness. Bats were the primary inhabitants of at least one cave, and another extended so far through the mountain that we had to turn back because we ran out of time to go through it. At the end of the trek, we loaded ourselves into inner tubes to float through yet another cave while clinging to a rope for dear life. Very cool experience!

While walking through town, we saw a number of signs in Hebrew (fun for me) and Korean! Low tourist season meant that it was relatively quiet, even considering the drinking, drugs, and partying culture that has given Vang Vieng a certain reputation. Unsurprisingly, the town was full of backpackers looking to have a good time. If our own experiences out and about are any indication, I can assure you that they did! If you’re ever in Vang Vieng, I highly recommend a trip to Sakura Bar, even if you’re going just for the top-notch people watching. We spent a few hours and very little money there and were highly entertained.

Neither of us were completely prepared for the seven and some hours on a rather poorly air-conditioned, much more crowded bus the next morning, but it was completely worth it to reach the UNESCO World Heritage city of Luang Prabang. Stay tuned!

Singapore

Where did the time go?

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The following Beatles lyrics keep floating unbidden to mind:

Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

I’ve been feeling a lot like poor ol’ Eleanor Rigby recently. It’s a lot of preparing to go out, being happy with friends, coming home, looking frantically for distraction. More podcasts and playlists than usual lately. The silence when I’m alone leaves me with my thoughts, and my thoughts are spinning.

Our last day with kids was Friday and we have two days of “wrapping up” to do this week and then one more school year is in the books. It is all happening shockingly quickly. My friends and colleagues begin flying out Tuesday night, which means that this whole leaving thing is now very, very real. I don’t actually head out for another two weeks but I’ll be in Laos next weekend and the following weekend means losing my apartment and beginning a very long plane ride. This was my last real weekend here in Singapore, which took me by surprise when I realized it Saturday night.

However, thanks (as usual!) to Lauren and Jamie, it was a really good one.

The weekend started with a department end-of-year celebration at Hombre Cantina, a Mexican restaurant in Boat Quay where I had surprisingly spicy margaritas and a veggie quesadilla. Very fun evening with some truly wonderful people.

The delicious food theme continued on Saturday when Jamie, Lauren, and I went to the first annual Singapore Coffee Festival to sample brews and foods from Singapore’s best coffee shops.

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This was actually a guest cafe from Japan and the coffee was delicious!

The event lasted for four days and included the three-storey exhibition of coffee, food, and independent “lifestyle” boutiques; live music; lab demonstrations from brewers; and open chats about coffee, brewing, and local coffee culture. The price of admission also included a nifty tote bag and a couple cool mugs! The festival organizers actually stopped door sales of tickets while we were there on Saturday because the F1 Pit Building that housed the festival was very crowded. If you want to go next year, which I really encourage, I highly recommend purchasing tickets in advance! They’re discounted during the pre-sale, too!

A going away party for another friend Saturday night gave me one more look at Marina Bays Sands all lit up. The Singapore Flyer is over on the left.

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My bucket list item for today was a visit to East Coast Park. I’d initially been planning to rent bikes to go exploring, but we decided a walk would suit our needs (and other plans for the day) just fine. It’s so funny seeing the shipping lanes right off the beach, though. I still can’t get used to that.

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My primary objective overall was to spend as much time with my friends as possible, which we certainly accomplished. We made time for aloo gobi and garlic naan from Tekka Centre in Little India, too! That was a major highlight. Love me some Indian food, especially in this part of the world.

What I enjoyed most was spending this weekend in so many diverse environments. A mere 48 hours managed to cover Mexican food, hipster coffee culture, fancy bars, the beach, and the crush of people and delicious foods that represent Sunday in Little India.

I’m going to miss this place. A whole hell of a lot.

If you need me, I’ll be in a corner with my eyes closed and hands wrapped around my knees. And tomorrow morning, I’ll take that face out of the jar by the door and head back to school for the second to last time.