Yes, this is long for us. 11 nights. We stayed in a resort with a pool for the first 4 nights, then left for a stay in the small town of Nong Khiaw and came back to Luang Prabang for 7 nights in an Airbnb. This town is the main tourist hub in Laos and the downtown has been preserved as a UNESCO heritage site. We enjoyed the shops, restaurants, and night market in a very comfortable downtown even though there were quite a few tourists around. It has a lot of temples and historical buildings and it is in a picturesque spot at the confluence of Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers. This looked like the perfect spot to rest up as we neared the end of our Asia trip. The first 4 days were great and we didn’t do much but wander around town, eat the great food, and the cool off in the afternoon at our hotel pool. But, when we returned for our later 7 night stay, we didn’t have a pool. Our Airbnb was spacious with a nice living room and an outside patio but the only AC was in the bedroom. The 100 degree days and humidity started to get to us after a few days. We had seen the sites and were ready to move on. Our walks through the cute little town were getting shorter because we were so sweaty.
We did visit the main attractions in town. We saw the many different Wats (Buddhist temples) including one perched on a hill right in the middle of town. We went to some galleries, craft markets and weaving stores and a couple of other small museums. We saw the National Museum in the old Royal Palace which was interesting but not super large for being the headquarters of a royal family. Since we had several days here, we spread the attractions out over the 11 days. They all could be visited easily in about 3 days.
Our big excursion was a trip to the Kuang Si falls. We hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us on the 45 minute drive from town to the Falls parking lot. From there, you get on a tram that takes you to a butterfly park, a moon bear rescue zoo and the waterfalls. We love waterfalls and have been to many of them all around the world. These were some of the best with multiple tiers of cascades that spilled into turquoise pools. I am proud of some of the fantastic pics I got. These falls reminded us of Plitvice in Croatia, and also the falls outside of Palenque, Mexico – all very cool calcified pools of blue and turquoise. It was even cooler because we were allowed to swim in some of the pools. The cool water felt pretty good after the stifling humid heat. The bears were rescued from the illicit trade. I didn’t even know there was a “bear trade” but these bears had lived most of their life in small cages. They still didn’t look happy in the bigger zoo enclosures. The butterfly farm was way better than all the other butterfly zoos that we have been to. They did breed a huge variety of butterflies in a large enclosure but it didn’t seem they really needed to. Outside of the netted room, there were butterflies everywhere because of beautiful garden along side a small stream. Really cool to just walk along and see some many butterflies just in nature.
When we first arrived to Luang Prabang we were really enchanted by the cute downtown and though this would be a great place for a long stay. We met some nomad friends who took us to the night market and we enjoyed the fantastic food and atmosphere. By the way, you should check out their youtube channel- Rossies Go Roaming. They just rented a tuk-tuk and drove it all over Cambodia. But back to our long stay in Luang Prabang…. I don’t think it is the town’s fault that we felt a bit bored over 11 days. It was partially the weather but I think we really need to look at ourselves. We seem to be more comfortable in stays of around a week and then we are ready to move on. Many of our slower traveling nomad friends say we are not getting the local living vibes because we travel too fast. We have stayed for much longer at places in Mexico but those have beaches and pools or volunteer opportunities that give us something to do. Small tourists towns in Southeast Asia are fantastic, but for us, a week in 100 degree weather seems to be enough and we shouldn’t feel guilty about wanting to travel on to our next stop. And the next stop is the capital of Laos, Vientiane!