Watch the sun set over the Mekong
Head up to Phu Si Hill in the centre of town in Luang Prabang – you can’t miss it as it has a temple on top that can be seen from every angle. From here you get views of the mountains surrounding Luang Prabang and the point where the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers meet. Stunning. Mekong river cruise in Laos
See one of the nicest waterfalls in Asia
I spent 9 months travelling all over Southeast Asia and I must say that the Kuang Si Waterfall near Luang Prabang is the prettiest I saw. It features a large cascade from which you can jump down into pools below. A series of smaller azure-coloured falls and pools make for excellent swimming holes. (I hope you’re not ticklish, as little fish will be giving you a free pedicure…)
Take a hot air balloon ride in Vang Vieng
Take the chance to fly above Vang Vieng, Laos in a world-class hot air balloon, operated under strict international standards. Your pilot is an internationally trained hot air balloon pilot with years of experience, so there’s nothing to fear. Hot air ballooning is notoriously expensive but in Vang Vieng it is considered to be one of the cheapest places in the world to experience the andrenaline of floating over 900 metres in the air in nothing but a basket attached to a massive balloon. Tours in Laos
Thanks to Alex In Wanderland, we have some great pictures to show with you that she captured on her very own flight over Vang Vieng:
This is one of the only ways in which to truly experience and see the beauty of the limestone mountains & forestry that Laos is famous for.
There are several launch sites around Vang Vieng that you will begin your journey from. Once in the air, you’ll have the chance to float over the Nam Song River, the beautiful mountains and the town of Vang Vieng itself. After 40 minutes in the air, you’ll make your way back towards ground-level, where a truck will be waiting to take you back into town for a meal or some rest.
Learn to cook Laotian food
Tamarind restaurant in Luang Prabang does a great cooking course, but there are others around the country. There’s a great minced-meat stir fry dish in Laos called Laap, which I highly recommend eating, but I also recommend learning how to cook it!
Of the Lao menu, my personal favourites are the pumpkin curry, the stirfry pork & aubergine, chicken laap and the mok paa (fish steamed in banana leaf). Take note though - on busy nights you should be prepared to bring some patience with you. As each dish is cooked fresh from scratch, service can be slow; but if you have the time it's worth the wait.
I felt it was high time I learned to cook some Lao food, which is not a hugely well known cuisine globally - unlike the dishes of neighbouring Thailand, China and Vietnam - but really deserves to be so. Lao food tends to be much lighter than Thai food and uses numerous flavorful fresh herbs and plants. Almost every meal is served up with a bamboo basket of glutenous sticky rice (known in Lao as kao niao) on the side. More information of Lao cuisine and its origins can be found here, or in one of the books listed at the end of this post.
Anyway, rather than join a big group at one of the cooking schools, I asked Toui if he would give me a private cooking lesson and teach me some Lao recipes.
