2 Days in Luang Prabang, Laos: UNESCO World Heritage City
Where to Stay in Luang Prabang
Admittedly, I arrived in Luang Prabang without a hotel or hostel reservation. Upon arriving in Luang Prabang from the 2 day slow boat from Thailand, my travel companion and I started our hostel search with a large group. As it turns out, finding a hostel or hotel that can accommodate a group is extremely challenging!
As such, we split off with just a Dutch man to search for someplace to stay in Luang Prabang. Looking for just 3 people was still a challenge. During our search, we found half of the places were full and the other half were 130,000 kip for a double room, which was above our budget for the night.
Eventually, we stumbled onto our winner. A hotel that had a private room for 35,000 kip each for Jenny and I and a 30,000 kid dorm bed for our Dutch friend.
What did I learn from this experience? Either book your accommodation in Luang Prabang ahead of time, or be prepared to spend time searching… and searching… to find what you need.
Luang Prabang at Night
The Night Market in Luang Prabang
After dark, the first place to head is the Luang Prabang night market. It is quite something and a must explore while in Luang Prabang. Here you’ll find a number of food stalls set up on both ends of the souvenir booths along with an alley featuring all kinds of food and some restaurants lining the end of the road.
If you’re looking for dinner or for a souvenir, you’ll find it hear. The only unfortunately thing about the night market is that the tents that cover the market are not super tall. At 6′, I had to duck to explore the tents, and our poor Dutch friend was 6’7”, so we had some struggles that you might not have!
All in all, the night market is a top notch Asian marketplace. Highly recommend, even if just to walk through and not shop.
Nightlife in Luang Prabang
In the evening, Luang Prabang shuts down early. By 10pm everything was closed except a huge bar on the edge of town called Utopia. Everyone congregates there for the evening. By 11:30pm they start urging you out the door and by midnight they too are closed down.
So where does everyone go? The bowling alley. What?! Yes, you read that right, everyone goes to a bowling alley outside of town. There are songthaews waiting outside Utopia to take everyone the few kilometers to a bowling alley for 5,000 kip each.
Three of us decided to walk as it was not far on the map but partially there we ran into friends we had made in Pai, Thailand, and they said the map is wrong. The bowling alley is not located properly on the map. When in doubt, you can do what we did, and flagged down locals on their motorbikes to ask.
In the end, the five of us caught rides on the three motorbikes making it three people per motorbike – tight squeeze! But ultimately, we got to the bowling alley, bowled (25,000 kip/game), and naturally I won. Call it a hidden talent.
At the end of the night we took a songthaew back to town and called it a night. While there aren’t a lot of nightlife options in Luang Prabang, it does push everyone to the same bars, clubs, and bowling alleys. This is actually quite fun as you’ll get to meet more travelers in the area, and you’re sure to run into them again and again and again.
Exploring Luang Prabang
The city itself is very clean and uniform with all of the signs for guesthouses and restaurants fashioned the exact same and no trash on the streets. This is because the city is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In walking around town you will find a lot of charm as it is surrounded by two different rivers, features a hill with a temple perched on top, a long bamboo bridge, and lots of other hidden gems.
Visiting the Monks in Luang Prabang
One of the best things to do is to get up early and see the 6:00am alms offering to the monks near the night market. Unfortunately, this tradition has become more of a zoo in that it is very well-known to tourists and they come out in large quantities and do not respect the guidelines. If you’re going, a few simple rules to follow:
- Dress appropriately covering your shoulders and knees.
- Don’t take flash photography.
- Don’t stand in the monks way.
- There are mixed reviews on if you’re making an offering what to do including some saying if you don’t believe in it, don’t make an offering to others simply saying make sure the food is fresh.
- Under no circumstance should you touch the monks, especially if you are female as this requires them to go through a cleansing ceremony.
It all seems easy enough but it was appalling to see the tourists swarming the streets and monks flashing their cameras in their faces and standing in front of them causing the monks onto the street and then back to the sidewalk simply to get around those standing in their way to capture the perfect photo. Don’t be that person.
I had actually read that the monks wanted to discontinue the tradition because it’s become such a tourist attraction but they are forced to continue or the city threatened to dress regular people as monks to process through the streets. No guarantee this is true, but in any case, just be respectful.
Day Trip to Kuang Si Waterfalls
One of the best activities in Luang Prabang is taking a day trip out to the Kuang Si waterfalls. Having seen countless waterfalls I was skeptical on how awesome it could be, but it turned out to be gorgeous!
There are a number of small tiered waterfalls at the beginning with beautiful blue pools you can swim in and as you get to the back there is a large waterfall with many streams flowing down the side of a cliff.
You can climb up on either side of the waterfall but the paths are kind of muddy and steep so take appropriate shoes (I wore flip-flops – ha!) and make your way up.
At the top you have excellent views of the surrounding hills but you cannot see the falls only some of the pools that feed into them. In case this all does not sound wonderful, which it is, it really is!
There is also a bear rescue at the front of the park with lots of funny looking black bears who were playing with one another and a lot of fun to watch. Take a day trip. Do it. A shared songthaew is 40,000 kip/person and entrance was 20,000 kip.
In case you are on your own or do not have enough people, we simply walked up to other travelers waiting for a songthaew and quickly made friends to share a ride with.
