Asian Adventure – Luang Prabang and French Food

April 20, 2012
By: Fernanda & Patricia

After Vang Vieng we bravely made the seven hour journey to Luang Prabang. Well, we had no choice in our group situation but we were still brave as we trekked up and around Laos’s terrifying mountains. Luang Prabang is a charming French colonial town with very delicious street food. Walking around there we forgot we were in South East Asia and felt like we had stepped into a small European town.

We woke up at 4am to witness the giving of the alms to the Buddhist monks. The monks can’t eat anything that is not given to them by the town people, so everyone gets up to feed them. You give each of them a banana and some sticky rice. It felt good to be contributing to this generous ritual and even though we aren’t Buddhists, we did feel very spiritual that morning. Afterwards we went back to sleep for a few hours to get ready for our day around town.

We rode bikes around town and along the Mekong River, stopping at a few sites. We also decided to all go to the nearby Kouang Si waterfall. It was unbelievable. It was in a blue lagoon and the whole place looked like the set of a Peter Pan Disney movie. We trekked to the top of the waterfall and swam in the pond and under the waterfall. Further down the mountain the waterfall became smaller and we swam in a small lagoon and swung off trees like George of the Jungle! Or, should we say, Jane of the Jungle? It was pretty liberating.

At night, in more civilized land, we went to the night market. We did some shopping, but not too much, and had street food dinner. The street food is a mix of Thai food and French food. Being the food loving Mexicans that we are, nothing sounds better than some spicy Thai food followed by fresh Nutella crepe.

 

Images: author’s own.