Laos

We finally were able to make it over to Laos last week and loved the people, food, and beautiful scenery. Thanks to international labor day and "victory day" here in Vietnam (celebrating defeat of American forces), we had almost a whole week to explore both Luang Prabang and Vientiane.

Luang Prabang is located in north central Laos at the intersection of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers and is filled with temples and beautiful architecture. One of the biggest highlights of the town is that around 6AM every morning the resident monks fill the streets in bright orange robes, where people provide them with sticky rice and other food. Our friend Alex and I both participated in the ceremony by offering rice, even though it was raining our first day. We must have snapped hundreds of pictures.

The rivers and mountains were pretty photogenic as well, which we enjoyed the next day while taking a two hour boat trip up the Mekong River to visit Pak Ou Cave, where hundreds of Buddha statues have been placed. We stopped in a riverside village along the way, where I sampled some Lao coffee and there was no shortage of cute kids. That afternoon, we hired a tuk tuk for the hour drive to Kuang Si Falls. We took an alternate path to the main waterfall, which involved a slippery muddy path and fording the river, but the sheer beauty of the place was worth it. I was able to fit in a quick swim and try out an awesome rope swing. They also had an exhibit with rescued sunbears, which Nikki of course loved!

The next day we visited an elephant sanctuary set amongst stunning mountains and a river. We were able to feed and ride the elephants, and I'm pretty sure Nikki was trying to figure out how to get one back to Ho Chi Minh City. From the sanctuary, we jumped in kayaks and followed the Nam Khan river for a few hours back to Luang Prabang, getting a riverside view of rural Laotian life.

Aside from these day trips, we had tons of fun touring around Luang Prabang proper. We climbed Phu Si to visit the hilltop temple, got Lao massages, checked out the night market and sampled street food, and of course gorged ourselves on delicious Lao food – Laap salad, pork-stuffed lemongrass, sausages wrapped in lettuce and herbs, dried Mekong river weed (good with BeerLao), various dips made from eggplant, tomato, and buffalo skin (yum!), and of course ubiquitous sticky rice.

We had only a couple days to see Vientiane, but had fun sightseeing in the Lao capital city along the Mekong river on the border with Thailand. We saw the famous gold-colored Pha That Luang Buddhist stupa, the Arc de Triomphe-like Patuxai monument, and several other wats and temples. One of the highlights was eating at restaurant Makphet, which is both delicious and benefits street children (part of Friends International, which also has restaurants in Cambodia).

In all, we loved Laos and found it to be a fantastic and somewhat overlooked travel destination. We will definitely have to return for more delicious food and adventures.