The Beautiful City of Luang Prabang, Northern Laos PART ONE

in #travel7 years ago (edited)

Hello Steemians!

I was planning to write a post about our time in Luang Prabang but I started trying to sort through the pictures and there were just too many for one post so I decided to split it into two, today will cover the city and the Mekong River and tomorrow will cover the waterfalls and the sun bears.

In spring of last year my girlfriend and I were backpacking across Laos from south to north and one of the places we visited was the beautiful city of Luang Prabang. This is one of the most famous cities in Laos because the entire city(or rather collection of villages) is a UNESCO world heritage site and is located in the central region of northern Laos. It is very well preserved both culturally and architecturally with a unique core to the city and beautiful nature surrounding the whole area, it really is a magical place and quite unique in Laos.

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My girlfriend at Phou Si in the center of town, I swear this photo isn't edited just perfect conditions

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There are so many Buddhist temples in Luang Prabang

Checking Out the Town

We stayed in Luang Prabang for four days and the first 2 days we spent just wandering around the town and enjoying all the beauty of the town. There are so many beautiful temples in town and every morning you can watch all the monks walking through the main streets. For the lazy afternoons there are dozens of small cafes that serve locally grown coffee in both European and Laotian styles, some of them even with tables along the river side. We spent one day on rental bikes(you can get them everywhere) just riding up and down all the streets in town before taking a break to head up Phou Si, a small but steep hill in the center of town. There are stairs heading up from all sides and ending at a shrine at the top and it also offers amazing views of the whole region of Luang Prabang.

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Some of the beautiful temples throughout the town

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A few shots of the unique style of the city, its quite different from everywhere else we visited in Laos

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A shot of a golden statue on Phou Si in the middle of town

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Biking through town!

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*One of the cafes we visited had sections of wall all around the place telling stories about the farmers in the region *

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*And their cappuccino skills were on point! *

Heading Up The Mekong

We decided to take a couple tours while we were there and one of them was a trip up the Mekong stopping at a small village and the famous Pak Ou caves before heading back to town. The tour was mainly about the boat ride, as it took two hours each way, and it was totally worth it, there is something special about being on the Mekong that I just cannot get enough of no matter how many times I get on it. The stop at the village was nice, although it felt kind of built around the tours, where everything was for sale but they sold homemade whiskey which I had to try so I picked up a bottle before we headed further down the river. The final stop was Pak Ou caves which is a set of caves that open near the river and are filled with golden Buddhas. There is another cave higher up that is beautiful as well but it was very dark and I couldn't get many pictures to turn out. After 45 minutes or so we made the two hour ride back to town and I have to say, while the tour was kind of boring in the conventional sense it really was nice to soak up the atmosphere along the famed river.

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There was a bit of a traffic jam at the start

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Cruising

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We all wore life jackets for about 5 minutes before they came off

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The countryside is beautiful through here

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Another boat moving at a fast clip past us

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How they produce their rice whiskey

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It was cool to try but I am pretty sure you could start your car with it

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The entrance to the caves

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The people from this area come to pray everyday

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A closer shot of the golden statues

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A shot from the mouth of the lower cave

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The golden statues outside the upper caves

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My favorite shot of the day! My beautiful girlfriend @kamapan

The few days we spent loafing around were some of my favorite days in Laos, sometimes when you travel all the time it's nice to just slow down, enjoy your surroundings and just be there. We had a lot of fun on the boat tour as well and tomorrow I will write a post about visiting the sun bears and one of the nicest waterfalls I have ever seen! Thanks for reading!


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Such a great post. Love it. Thank you for sharing with us🤩

Absolutely! Thanks for taking the time to read it

Looks like an awesome trip. Such awesome architecture and culture, so different from the western world.

Yeah there is so much of western culture bleeding into every other culture in the world that it is nice when you find a place that is uniquely its own

Truth. I am so sickened by the corporate repeat cities and towns of the US. Everywhere, the same restaurants, the same big box shops. I go to a different city and it's the same as any suburb where I come from, just scrambled and re-arranged a little different: Walmart next to Arby's, next to Target, next to Home Depot, etc. It's hard not to feel American culture is McDonalds.

I am with you on that, Canada is the exact same, its just strip mall culture. The thing that kills me is it is spreading all over the world and stripping the culture and most people are just ok with it. The only places in Asia I have been that seem irreverent to western culture is China, Japan and Korea because none of these countries are dependent on tourism and it is nice to really see the culture everywhere.

I've always been wanting to go to Laos, thank you for this wonderful glimpse of what I will be expecting for that trip. Godbless you and your gf:)

-check me out @felixsteemit-

I appreciate the kind words!

Found you in travel digest! You have a very good eye for photo perspectives! Looking forward to the second part :)

I appreciate the kind words!

Hiya, just swinging by to let you know you're being featured in today's Travel Digest!

Very nice. Looking forward to reading part two, after you've drank the Lao Lao Whisky.

Lucky you to be able to travel the world my fret! Thanks for sharing these though, I might find your posts when I visit Luang Prabang.

Of course! Its such a beautiful place, it has to be shared! Thanks for checking it out

Yes and would love to see your future posts as well. :)

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