Luang Prabang, Laos

The slow boat from Huay Xai leaves you a tuk tuk (or took took, as they like to call them here) distance from the city center. The price for the ride to town is fixed to 20k kip, and there is no room for negotiation. They drop you off at the point where the night market starts, which is literally in the middle of town. Our hostel was about three blocks away. The first night in LP consisted on visiting the ever so popular Utopia bar, followed up by a tuk tuk ride to a bowling alley. This is your nightime party routine in LP. Utopia has a very justified reputation. It sits by the river and it's very nicely put together. I didn't manage to try it, but my guess umis it'd probably be equally as enjoyable during the day, when the views can be appreciated better.
The second day, I spent it walking around the city. It had rained the night before which cleared out the smoke from field and trash burning, which has been haunting me since I did the north of Thailand. For once, the view was crisp, and the air felt clean. I went around the peninsula that forms in between the two rivers that flank the city (the Mekong and the Nam Kham and took millions of pictures of the mountains in the background and the rivers. Whereas the whole waterfront area is overwhelmed by guesthouses and high end hotels, they have made an effort to maintain the historical French facades of buildings. There are also many western-style coffee shops and restaurants in this area. It was nice for a change to see a bit of a more developed yet clean and slightly sophisticated side of SEA, but it clearly feels foreign. On my second night, I skipped Utopia and headed to the night market which beyond being a good option for souvenir shopping, offers good Lao style street food, but also quite decent crepes and the ever so yummy fruit shakes.
On the last day in LP, I, very much unnecessarily, woke up around 5 am to go see the alm giving ceremony in the main street of LP (same as the night market). This ceremony consists of people offering food (most commonly sticky rice from a steamer and some snack or fruit) to the monks, at sunrise. A local lady coaxed me to buy some sticky rice, kneel down and offer it to the passing monks. Whereas it was a pleasant experience, and I'm happy to contribute with the monks, as I looked around me, it was all tourist like me who were doing the offering while all the locals were doing the selling. Not to mention that there were people standing in front of the monks to get the better "selfie" angle. I was a bit disappointed in the whole thing. It seems that once again, we (falangs) have managed to turn a beautiful meaningful tradition into one more sightseeing. I sat down at the street for the rest of the ceremony, taking pictures not of the monks but of the locals as they were starting to set up their tents for the day market. After that, a minivan picked us up from the hostel and we headed to the Kouang Xi waterfalls. This was hands down the highlight of my visit to LP. It's simply beautiful. And for a change, it really looks like the pictures you find online. I didn't swim. The water was too cold, for me anyways. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it. We did the climb all the way to the top for some majestic views of the mountains. Once back in LP, we climbed the stairs that go uo to mount phosi to watch the sunset, but it was too late by the time we found the right entrance and we didn't feel like paying the entrance fee. Instead, we crossed the street and crossed the bamboo bridge over the river, while observing local children playing soccer at the river bed and monks taking a swim almost fully dressed.Read more