Luang Prabang 26 Feb - 1 Mar

We love Luang Prabang. This was Jeff and my second visit to this lovely French colonial town on the confluence of the Mekong and the Nam Som Rivers. Luang Prabang has changed a lot since our visit three years ago. Mainly, the prices have skyrocketed. We had a bit of “sticker” shock when we first arrived. Instead of staying in the middle of town as before we opted to stay in the more local side of town. We stayed in a lovely guest house that was easy walking distance to everything, perhaps only 5 – 10 minutes longer walk. We explored old haunts and found new places also. Tim and I rented bicycles for a couple of hours one afternoon and rode all around the town. One our favorite places is a small bamboo restaurant/bar near the river, where we played backgammon and ate roasted cashew nuts. The night market is always a fun place and we ended up eating at the market stalls for a couple of our evenings, enjoying some of the local fare. Grilled whole fish, dried fried meat, curry, grilled pork were just some of the favorites. All in, dinner ranged from$3.50 - $8.00 for all three of us.
~Karen~

I still love Luang Prabang, but it certainly has changed. There is definitely a lot more money in the town now. Everywhere you look there is new construction going on and a lot of fancy new houses. Three years ago, we saw scooters, tuk tuks, a few cars and a lot of bicycles. Now you see heaps of brand new scooters, quite a few new cars and not so many bicycles. As for the costs, a room in the place we stayed last time was $10, this time, they wanted $42 per night. Beer has gone 50cents to $1.75 and other than the market, food costs are up as well. It’s still very inexpensive, but it was a shock to see things go up that quickly.

One thing that has not changed was Tat Kuang Si waterfalls. We road out with our friends Leeor and Lirit. The falls were just as we remembered them last time. It is a giant waterfall that then cascades down through limestone formations, creating pool after pool of turquoise water. Great place for swimming and Tim found a rope swing that he went off a lot of times. We were a little worried that the falls might not have much water. Currently, Laos is going through a drought. It is dry season, but it has been much drier than usual and for longer as well. Our other favorite waterfall near Luang Prabang (Tat Sae) did not have any water so we didn’t go.

~Jeff~