Luang Prabang (part 1)

Hi everyone.
Last time we blogged we were in Vang Vieng. From there, we took the new fast train to go to Luang Prabang. This train is pretty recent and I think was mainly built to go to China as Laos as a border with China and a lot of tourists come from there.
They overdid the security at the train station a bit too much I think. As we were entering the station, we had to put our bags in a scanner like the ones in airport and same as an airport, we found out that you can’t have a spray deodorant or scissor. Again this is a TRAIN station! It is not like you can checked bags! You have your bags with you and we have everything in our bag that we need to live at the moment. So, we end up loosing our deodorant and a small pair of scissors that Kev had to trim his beard… Slightly annoyed!!!! Anyway, we get in the train, there are people in our seats, no staff to help us there… language barrier is strong. We end up seating on other empty seats with our bags.. not comfortable but it is only for one hour ish.
Finaly, we arrive at Luang Prabang. A bit of history and geography first:
Luang Prabang is located in the central north of Laos and seat on the river Mekong. The town was established by the end of the 8th century and was named Xieng Thong. Around the 12th and 13th century, the Khmer kingdom extend all the way to Xieng Thong and brought Buddhism and the name was changed to Luang Prabang, after a statue of Buddha, the Prabang (a gift from Cambodia). The town grew in wealth as it was well positioned on the silk road.
During the 19th century, due to dynasty struggles, the Laos kingdom fell apart and Luang Prabang region became its own independent kingdom. Then in 1893, Laos became a French protectorate and Luang Prabang was the religious and royal capital. Laos gained its independence in 1953.
Today’s Luang Prabang reflect a strong influence of the French protectorate but also kept the traditional Laos architecture. There are also traditions, like the alms giving ceremony to monks, which are still very much alive. This is why the area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, the city is recognized for blending traditional Lao architecture, European colonial buildings, and over 30 Buddhist temples. And that is it for my lesson.

On the day, we arrived, we did our regular setting up into our room and walk around the area. The town is very lovely: there is no big building, it has a small town feeling with beautiful architecture. We found the night market, where lots of textile products are sold (as it is a big trade of the area). We had a couple of drinks and called it a day.
The next day, we went to visit the museum, which used to be the royal palace. It was my turn to be told, I couldn’t get in with my shorts, even if there were under my knees: I was made to wear a traditional skirt (that you paid a small fee to rent obviously), which was very restricting to walk in!!! I do not like skirt, so I was already annoyed to have to wear one, and they stop you taking big steps. I apparently take bigger steps that the average Laotian woman, because I kept getting restricted by that bloody skirt! Anyway!!!! We visited the museum, which I enjoyed as it was still set as the palace was, with the king and queen rooms and reception hall, and it was very nice to visit. The walls were decorated with glass decoration depicting the traditional Laotian life. I really enjoyed it. I was glad to give this stupid skirt when I was done though!
We kept walking into the town and visited several more temples, all very beautiful. It is funny because, even if there are Buddhist temples, and we have seen a few by now, we noticed differences, for example in the Buddha positions, or the colors of the Nagas (big seven headed snakes), or the way the walls are decorated. Here there are a lot of those colorful glass decoration. It makes it still interesting to visit.
On Sunday, we took a couple of classes at the Ock Pop Tok living craft centre. We started the day with a natural tie dying class. We learnt how to make colors out of natural ingredients: indingo leaves for blue, wood of the Sappan tree for red, seeds of the Annatto tree for orange, turmeric roots for yellow and plenty more. We cut and crush what was need and throw them in big pot of hot water. Andrew was so at ease; he loves the hands-on workshop and seems to really enjoy every steps. Then we choose the patterns we wanted to do and learn how to fold and use pegs or bamboo to create our patterns. After that it was dying time (the messy and fun part)! Some of them had to be washed in ash water to change the color, some had to be put in 2 different colors. It was really nice to see the color developing on the fabric and the final result. As we had another class in the afternoon, the lunch was included and often, it is a simple meal in those situations. Not this time: it was a wonderful meal made with local delicacies: dried river weeds (our favorite), fish salad (tofu for me), bamboo soup and seasonal fruits: amazing!!! I also tried one of their special tea: as they have silk worm here, to do their weaving, they have silk worm poop tea! Yes you read that right! It was not bad!!! In the afternoon, we took an artisan class where we learn to do dream catchers that is often put up in temples or houses. It was a couple of hours learning how to make them. Emma seems to really enjoy this one and took to it very well. She was the first one to finish her dream catcher. After the class, the kids did a treasure hunt organised by Ock Pop Tok and they loved it: clues were all made of wood (puzzles, codes and more) and it took them through the whole centre, giving us time to enjoy a cocktail! We stayed for a while longer, as a group booked one area of the restaurant and had traditional musicians and dancers. It was a perfect way to finish the day.
I highly recommend this place if you go in Luang Prabang; either for a class or two, for a drink or food or just pop in the shop as they have some quality products made by local people.
The next day, we went to visit the Lao Buffalo Dairy. We learnt that Laos people thought milk was coming in a box. In this country full of buffalo and cow, Laos people did not milk their animals! They usually raise them for meat. When 2 friends (one from Australia and one from America) arrived in Laos with the idea of opening an hotel here and realised there were no local milk, therefore no local cheese (gasp!), they decided to open the first buffalo dairy farm! They work with local farmers and rent their buffalos to milk them and use the milk to create delicious cheese and yogurt. They also teach farmer how to milk their animal. Buffalos produce way less milk than cow, but the milk is delicious and a lot more nutritional than cow milk. We learn a lot during the tour. We also got to feed grass to the buffalo and milk to the young one, we brush and wash them. We also got to milk a buffalo! It was relatively easy. There was a cat which knew exactly what was happening and didn’t not stop meowing until we gave it the milk we manage to get!!! On the farm, they also have rabbits, goats, pigs (which lay down to get pats on their belly!). It was a very fun and interesting tour. We ordered a picnic to bring with us for the rest of the day. I really appreciated that it came in reusable containers that we had to drop back in the afternoon.
We took our picnic in the tuktuk we rented for the day and went to the Kuang Si waterfall. On the way to the waterfall, there is a butterfly park. We stopped there to have our picnic, which was delicious: salad and cheese made with buffalo milk, desert as well… amazing! The butterfly park was nice to walk in and had an explanatory booklet about butterfly which was full of knowledge: for example, how butterfly know which plant to leave their eggs on; they have taste buds on their feet to recognise the host plant (each species has a different host plant to leave their eggs on). Science lessons as so easy and interesting.
After that we went to the waterfall, which is one of the landscape tourists come to see in Luang Prabang. One thing in South-East Asia is that tourists are a main source of income, so you have to pay for everything. For example, we paid to enter the area of the waterfall, we paid for the butterfly park (which is in that area). When we arrived at the waterfall, which is breathtakingly beautiful, there are very long stairs (542 steps to be exact) to go above the waterfall. I assumed that at the top, we will be able to see the waterfall from above. We did the climb, painfully! At the top, you can not see the waterfall! There are viewing platform, that you need to pay to go on, we paid, you still can’t see the waterfall for there!!!! The only way to see the waterfall from above, was to do some ziplining (that you need to pay for obviously). Which is not for everyone, like Emma or me! Kev and Andrew did it and had lot of fun (this is rapidly becoming Andrew’s favorite thing to do). The view was great from the zipline! Thanks to Kev, Emma and I have a video to look at.
We went back downstair to have another look at the waterfall, which is truly magnificent. Emma really wanted to have a swim, but by then it was getting close to the closing time and we had to go back to the dairy farm to give the container back from our picnic and have one last ice cream (made of buffalo milk: yum!). We will go back to the waterfall to have a proper swim during the next few days.
Today is schoolwork and blog day. Tomorrow we have a cooking class booked: excited!
Mel

14.2.2025. We're off again, this time by train. Tuktuk to the station then through, security? X-rayed our bags and found….our deodorant can. Nope can't have that, chuck it in the bin. Need to check your bag sir, tiny pair of scissors I trim my beard with, nope can't have that. It's a fucking train, what am I gonna do? Steer it into a building? If I rummaged through my bag and pulled out my tiny pair of scissors and used them “threatingly” I'd be laughed at and then probably subdued. Anyway, we weren't happy with the tighter than an airport security for a bloody train.
Hey, we're in Luang Prabang. Found our guesthouse, had lunch at a nice little restaurant 20m up the street run solo (took a bit to get food). We settled in to our guesthouse, our biggest so far and our longest stay. Later we had a walk around and checked out the night market.
15.2.2025. Up early today, off to the morning markets. Mel found some sweet sticky rice with coconut and other stuff for breakfast, nothing appealed to me, Emma however bought a tray of strawberries. Off to the museum, formerly the royal palace. Saw a cafe close to that and Andrew noticed pain Chocolat. Emma had to have one too.
Into the museum. Mel had long shorts on, not long enough apparently and had to put on a long wrap skirt. Was not happy. As a person who likes their freedom of movement also I could understand. Made it difficult for Mel to go up and down stairs, let alone just walk. Anyway, the museum was ok. Was a bit smaller than we thought it would be after what we have seen so far. The rest of the day was spent walking and talking and looking at temples. We over templed ourselves again. At some point it goes from interesting to “yep that's another temple alright”. Seriously, there were 4 temples in a row on the same street. Then we found the one we were looking for. The SE Asian people are proudly religious, but I can't help think if they just put a small amount of the time, effort and money they put into temples everyone here would be much better off.
16.2.2025. We loved the cooking class in Cambodia, so we thought we would try some more classes here. We booked a natural dye class and an artisan class with a local group(Ock Pop Tok) that works to empower women and continue to keep textile traditions of Laos alive. I really enjoyed the natural dye class. I picked red for my scarf, blue and green for my placemats. We got to fold our things and use bamboo and string to tie them into patterns.
I split some wood, then boiled it for the red colour. For my placemats, I had to soak them in “indigo”. A brew of fermented leaves and wood and probably other things I can't remember. The indigo looks green, but after being exposed to oxygen and washed it turns blue. To get green, after the indigo we soaked it in turmeric “stew”, wanted a curry after that it smelt so good. The turmeric is yellow which turned the blue to green. Everything turned out great, I especially liked Andrew's shirt and Emma's scarf. Because we booked a full day (2 classes) we got lunch provided. A set menu of Fish salad, delicious. Bamboo shoot soup, bloody delicious. Some dried river weed, looked like sea weed a bit but was the best thing on the plate and some rice. Chock a block after that and wanted a sleep. No rest for the wicked, onto our next class. Artisan stuff. We made “dream catchers”. Was fun, with bright coloured threads made there with all their natural methods. After that we had more stuff to cram into our backpacks. The whole place is on the river, very relaxed and peaceful. The kids saw that they did a treasure hunt, so we signed them up for that. Took them a good while to work out all the clues, enough time for the adults to peruse the cocktail menu and have a couple that looked interesting. We were getting ready to leave when they started setting up for a blessing ceremony with live Laos music. Featuring bamboo organs which we had been meaning to listen to for a while now. So we sat, listened to some music, watched a ceremony followed by some Apsara dancing and Hanuman and monkey dancers. I had a beer, becoming fond of beer Lao, Mel and the kids had some dessert. All the while the sun had set and we needed to get a Tuktuk back to our guesthouse. Thankfully, with the classes, pick up and drop off from the store in town was included. We all had a fantastic day.
17.2.2025. We had a Tuktuk organised for the whole day and first stop was “Laos buffalo dairy”. We had booked a tour and picnic basket for the day. Tour first. Fed some pigs and rabbits. Scratched some pig bellies, they seemed to really like that. Milked a buffalo, brushed and washed some buffalo and fed said buffalo. Saw goats, talked to our guide, a young local who spoke reasonable English. Fed some younger buffalo milk. After our tour we spoke with one of the managers and was given our picnic basket, styrofoam box full of goodies. After the dairy we were off to Kuangsi Falls. Where we found out our Tuktuk was not allowed in, we had hoped to have our picnic lunch at the falls, but instead settled on having it at the butterfly park close to the bottom of the mountain. The Tuktuk was allowed to go that far, wait for us to have our lunch and then get out. The butterfly park was nice but not the same as having it at the falls we think. The picnic was really good. Pesto chicken salad(marinated feta for Mel). Carrot and cucumber stalks with dips, yum. Cheese platter and some cake, all made with buffalo milk. Was terrific and we are now all very full. We did the butterfly park, good information and a nice little jungle walk. Afterwards we walked up the mountain, then we walked up the stairs, 542 of them. Got to the top and…you have to pay for the viewing platform. Mel commented “we’re just wallets to them” and it can feel that way. It does add up, and is frustrating. We payed to enter the park. Then we payed to enter the butterfly park inside the park. Then we had to pay to go up the viewing platform only to find out that you can't even see the waterfall from it. Anyway, we had promised Andrew when we found some ziplines we would let him go, so we payed some more for that. Couldn't let him go alone and Mel doesn't do well with heights so I had to step up. Father of the year, sacrificy sort of stuff. I take all forms of alcohol and money as awards. Andrew loved it. The longest single zipline was just over 350m long. Our way down the mountain was fun and easier. By then the day was getting over pretty quick. Emma was a little upset because we had planned on swimming at the waterfall and Andrew had gotten what he wanted, but we had run out of time. We had a little talk, and were sorry we had not been able to do what she wanted. My girl is amazing, she was upset but after a small amount of reassurance that we would indeed swim another day she was ok. Both my kids are amazing, and the longer I get to spend with them the more I realise it. We paid our Tuktuk and went up to our room. Showered and rested. Mel found an activity that evening, a cooking class. Where we get to eat what we make for lunch and has Tuktuk pick up and drop off. After which we have access to dah, dah, dah…a waterfall for swimming. Keeping promises is what builds trust and makes a strong family. I feel it helps our kids feel heard, understood and secure. I am starting to feel more and more thankful to Mel for kicking my arse to get things done, planning everything with little to no help from me and dragging my arse along on this so far awesome trip. I know Mel will read this, so thank you sweetheart. That's enough from me for one day.
Kev

On the, wait I forgot to do an entrance, the one that you all have been waiting for well clap your hands for me because its about to happen. Wait pretend you never heard that, the entrance was meant to be a surprise but to late so who cares, so it’s about to happen three two one.
Scene one: (Andrew runs on stage and everyone claps), I’m back, and this blog is going to be my longest because were staying here for ten days and I write about 100 words per day (I think). So please enjoy. For it is about to start, (the stage slowly starts going darker and darker and darker and darker.)
On the 14th we arrived at Luang Prabang by train, the train was a nightmare we booked the cheaper part of the train and it was packed, people everywhere, it was chaos. There were also people in our seat so we had to discuss whose chair it is and the seating wasn’t that comfortable. Luckily, the train was only two hours long which is good, if there is anyone who likes personal space, I’m glad they were not on it. When we got there, we went around looking at a few temples, I’m not that much into it, I’m here for the ziplines. When we came back we went to sleep.
On the 15th we went to a museum that was once a palace. The museum had stuff that kings and queens had, it showed their bedrooms and other rooms. The palace was huge it was really big. It also had other fancy stuff like hats, pipes and bowls. Everything looked fancy, very fancy. After that we went around looking at temples. It was interesting. We went up a hill to see a temple: at the top it was three hundred and twenty eight steps up. The hill was called Phou Si hill, it was high and I hadn’t eaten much so it was even harder for me. When we went down we went back to the hotel and slept.
On the 16th we went to a place called Ock Pop Tok. It’s where we did classes on different things like bamboo weaving, embroidery, tie dye, looming and dream catcher making. We did dream catcher making and tie dye. I tie dyed a shirt and two napkins, I made them have different patterns and colours, it was actually pretty fun. The dye was made from natural ingredients that we had to make ourselves, it was fun. Some of the ingredients were berries, bark and roots. That’s very natural, but we still have dream catcher making to do. When we went to do it, it turned out to be very frustrating, tying the string around the little sticks a million times it is very annoying but whatever I’m still alive. When we went back to the hotel we slept. Night night.
On the 17th we went to a place called the dairy, it’s a farm but they mostly have buffalo, they only have the buffalo to milk and for tours like we did. When we got there, we waited because we arrived early. When it opened we went in to start, we had some buffalo milk cookies they were round and soft but delicious because the buffalo milk is creamy and thick. When we finished we went to see the pigs (fun fact: there is three types of pigs in Lao: black pigs, wild pigs and pink pigs) then we went to see the rabbits (fun fact: baby rabbits are very fidgety). When we left we went to the buffalos, they are very big. First we had a turn milking them, it was a bit scary being that close but I did it, After that we washed them it was very fun, then we fed the Babys milk. We went to the water fall it was on a mountain so we had to climb up, it was hard but I made it up. Emma wanted to go swimming but we went to the top where they had a zipline. Emma didn’t want to do it and mum wanted to but they were just a bit too scared so they didn’t do it but me and my dad did. It was really fun, and I could have done it a million times more, the scariest bit was where they attached us to a rope and let us down fast, it was nearly free falling. When we went back to the hotel we slept.
The End
Andrew (9 years old)

Hello people, I am going to tell you about our ten (well this is the 1st section) days in Luang Prabang.
Friday the 14th we went on a train. It was just over an hour to get there. When we got there, we had a little walk around because our room wasn’t ready.
On Saturday the 15th we went to the museum. There were glass sculptures all over the buildings. It was so amazingly beautiful I did not want to leave. but the best part was inside the buildings. It used to be a palace but now it’s a museum. And it’s loved by me.
Sunday the 16th we went to Ock pop tok. You are probably wandering what that is. It is a place where you can do different things. Like for instance there was bamboo weaving and tie die. We did tie die but not do bamboo weaving. Instead we did an artisan workshop where we had to make a dream catcher. I loved it so much I did not what to leave and when I had to go I was really sad.
Monday the 17th we went to the buffalo dairy. First, we went to see the pigs and got to feed them, second, we went to see the rabbits. After that we went to see the buffalos and you should have seen their face, drumroll please. They were adorable.
Tuesday the 18 we are just doing homework.
Emma (8 years old)Læs mere