Advertisement
A whole week away from work is a bit of a luxury and this time we decided to spend our time between Laos and Thailand. Getting to Laos from Hong Kong is a bit of a pain as flights aren't direct, so an overnight stay in Bangkok with our friends Vicky and Alvaro worked perfect.
Bangkok was in total turmoil with the red shirt protestors still on the streets in force. Passing through the centre of Bangkok, things did not seem as bad as we thought but seeing the Army on every street corner was a little scary, so we made sure we stayed well away from the protest area.
Luang Prabang in North West Laos is a UNESCO world heritage city, the protection offered by this status ensures that the laid back attitude, charming beauty and amazing landscape of this town has remained. The collection of traditional Laos & French colonial wooden houses are simply beautiful, the city maintaining its french/European architecture until today.
We stayed in a beautiful boutique hotel, Le Bel Air which is nestled in the jungle amongst natural vegetation. This place is highly recommended for those seeking a relaxing holiday away from the
traffic, hustle & bustle. We spent two days in Le Bel air, which was perfect for us.
There is a suspension bridge located directly outside Le Bel Air hotel and this gateway to Luang Prabang town has magnificent views of the Nam Khan river. We embarked on a daily ritual of crossing the bridge on our biycycles on the way to the town centre.
The bridge can be crossed on foot also and is super freaky when doing this after dark, the rickity wooden planks are not for the faint hearted!
The second hotel we stayed at was 'Maison Souvannaphoum', which we would highly recommend and only a five minute stroll to the centre of town, near to the night market, restaurants and bar street etc. The main town area of Luang Prabang is made of up temples, colonial houses and small shops....the highlight for us was the cute French cafes, bakeries & restaurants..you have to try the deserts, amazing! There are a few bars, but dont come to Luang Prabang if you are looking for a party!
One thing to know about Luang Prabang is that everything closes at 11:30 pm. Not that it is
a bad thing, but if you're a person looking for more night life, I would recommend going to Vang Vieng which is 6-8 hour bus ride from Luang Prabang, 4 hours from the capital city Vientiane.
Luang Prabang's early night curfew means that everyone in Luang Prabang starts their day early. We found it perfect to take in a 'Happy Beer-Laos Hour' around about sunset time every night, chilling and simply lounging in a quite streetside cafe, watching the world go by.
One of the better bars in town is called "Hive", chilled and comfortable with hip surroundings and they have different performances and various kinds of music each night. There is a late night club called 'Da Fao' and another called Lao Disco which close at around 1:30. Lao Lao Garden is another known nightspot, but we didnt check this one out.
There are of course other attractions to visit in Luang Prabang, the waterfall is well worth a visit, the wildlife sanctuary for bears and tigers and there are many many different temples, a Monks feeding site and other religious sights worth seeing. We really enjoyed an elephant ride in the jungle, the highlight being
bathing with the elephants which was an amazing experience!
Since this is a quite little town with scenic views, you can walk around the main street and market in 20-30 minutes. Walking around Luang Prabang town felt like time had stood still, with life remaining graciously slow & sleepy to this day.
When our 4 days in Luang Prabang ended, we headed to Chang Mai in the north of Thailand. Sadly the tension in Bangkok by this time had reached boiling point with the army entering into the red shirt barricades beginning to open live fire at the protestors.
We stayed in Tamarind Village hotel, a charming boutique hotel in the heart of Chiang Mai city. This place is simply beautiful. Unfortunately the troubles had extended to Chang Mai also and an evening curfew had been set in force in most provincess of Thailand, the hotel advised us not to leave the premises.
The next day we decided that sat inside hotel walls was not the best way to spend a holiday so we jumped on the next flight to Koh Samui in the South of Thailand, to avoid the potential riots which threatened in Chang
Mai. It was such a pity leaving this place, as there are so many things we wanted to explore and see, but a small taste of Chang Mai has given us enough reason to visit again when the troubles have dissapeared.
After landing in Koh Samui, we took a 45 minute boat ride over to the neighbouring island Koh Phangan, famed for its monthly 'full moon party' on Haad Rin beach.
Koh Phangan attracts thousands of visitors & party lovers from all over the world for the monthly party's and is also home and paradise for backpackers.
When we arrived at the pier, we embarked on hotel searching mission. It took us almost 4 hours and looking back now, It was worth the fatigue and sweat in the end as we found and settled in Santhiya Resort & Spa in Thong Noi Pan Beach, north of Koh Phangan. This hotel is absolutely amazing, more luxurious than we've expected and its hidden in a magnificent lush tropical forest. One of the best views I've seen in many of my Southeast asian beach holidays so far.
The only down side of staying in this hotel/Thong Noi Pan is
that its at the chilled and quiet end of Koh Phangan. (Recommended bar to go here are: The Reggae and Luna Bar, great ambience) Anyone looking to head to any of the islands party's will need to expect to travel almost an hour back and forth on a terribly rough, undeveloped road to reach the party town at Haad Rin and other beach areas such as Baan Tai.
We joined a half moon party which was in the middle of the forrest and probably had 1000 people at its busiest point. We met a few funny characters, having the time of their lives and we had a great laugh. The next night we headed to Haad Rin beach party and had a super crazy night, which is customary for Koh Pangyan and most of which could not be remembered the next morning!
We had a fabulous time in the ten days we were away and taking in Luang Prabang, Bangkok, ChangMai, Koh Samui and Koh Pangyan in just one trip (Plus 7 flights!!) made us realise how much you can see and explore in a short space of time.
Our detour to the South of Thailand proved
a very wise move, with trouble kicking off in Changmai, shops set on fire etc just the day after we had left...phew! :-)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0315s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jenny
non-member comment
Greta blog my dear, and may i say that your written english has improved in leaps and bounds! This is a great outline of things to do when I decide to visit Luang Prabang myself one day...and I will go there soon! :-)