This is our favourite city in Southeast Asia so far. After Vietnam we felt like peace came upon us 🙂 No chaotic traffic, no aggressive street sellers, even the tuk tuk drivers realized that shouting after tourists might not get them extra rides.
Same goes for the Night Market.. nobody will chase you to buy something from them so you can walk around and check out all the products without being disturbed all the time. There are many very nice products available here and it is very cheap 🙂 If you buy from here you also support the local people as all products are created by Lao people.
The city itself is very nicely done, beautiful buildings typical Lao architecture using mainly wood. Every hotel we checked out had very nice rooms, hot shower, and was very clean. As this is a world heritage site there are many things to see. Temples can be found at virtually every corner in this town. There are many restaurants and bars offering a wide choice of food and drinks however prices are higher than other cities in Laos. The best view over the town is from the Phousi Hill it definitely worth hiking up. I am not going to write any more on this in detail as it has been written many times. Wikitravel is your friend and has many information on Puang Prabang.
One notable thing is that the Lonely Planet book on Laos ( at least the one we had ) contained many false information. Just to get it right there ARE many ATMs in town and one can withdraw a maximum of 1.000.000 ( from 2010 November ) Kip at once for a 20.000 Kip commission. Hotels and some restaurants do take credit cards for a 5% commission so there is no need to walk around with US Dollars in your pocket as they take Kip everywhere only some hotels are quoting prices in USD however Kip is also accepted.
Luang Prabang became a real tourist mecca over the years there are many tours going from the city to the waterfalls or to the caves. We didn’ try these as we decided to rent a scooter and visit these sites on our own 🙂
Luang Prabang map:
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