Three days in Luang Prabang: where the whole town gets up at five to feed the monks

Two nights on the peninsula between two rivers, with the temples and the palace on foot and the waterfalls half an hour south.

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Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Luang Prabang
Places
8 across 3 days
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Luang Prabang is a peninsula three streets wide where the Nam Khan runs into the Mekong, and on it sit something over thirty working Buddhist monasteries, several hundred French colonial and Lao timber buildings, and a hill with a temple on top. It was the royal capital of Laos until the monarchy was abolished in 1975, UNESCO listed the whole town in 1995, and the effect of that listing is that nothing has been knocked down since.

The town runs on a rhythm rather than a list of sights. Monks collect alms at first light, the temples open, the heat arrives, the town lies down, and at five in the afternoon everybody walks up the hill or down to the river. Two nights is enough to fall into it.

The one thing worth leaving town for is a waterfall half an hour south, which falls through a series of limestone pools in a colour that photographs badly because nobody believes it.

Highlights

  • Tak bat at dawn, when a line of barefoot monks in orange collects rice from kneeling townspeople
  • Wat Xieng Thong, built in 1560, with a glass mosaic tree of life on its back wall
  • The royal palace, left as it was when the last king was taken away in 1975
  • Kuang Si falls, turquoise from dissolved limestone, with a bear sanctuary at the gate
  • Sunset from Phou Si, 300-odd steps above a town with two rivers around it

Where to stay

Luang Prabang, two nights

Stay on the peninsula, between the Royal Palace and Wat Xieng Thong. It is a kilometre and a half long and a few hundred metres wide, so everything is a walk, and the guesthouses are converted timber and stucco houses with wooden shutters and a courtyard.

The Nam Khan side is quieter and has the better views; the main street is where the night market sets up and is livelier and noisier. Anything across the bridges is cheaper, further and needs a bicycle.

Day by day

Day 1 in Luang Prabang

The palace, the finest temple in Laos, and the hill at sunset

The Royal Palace was built for King Sisavang Vong in 1904, in a style that is half Lao and half Beaux-Arts because the French were paying. In 1975 the royal family were removed to a re-education camp in the northeast and never seen again, and the palace became a museum with the rooms left much as they were: the king's library, the queen's bedroom, diplomatic gifts including a piece of moon rock from the United States.

Then walk the length of the peninsula to the temple everybody comes for. Wat Xieng Thong was finished in 1560 and its sim, the ordination hall, has a roof that sweeps almost to the ground in three tiers, which is the Luang Prabang style and which no photograph gets right. On the wall at the back is a tree of life picked out in coloured glass.

End on the hill. There are steps up from both sides, the temple at the top is small, and the point is the view down onto the rivers with the sun going into the mountains behind.

  1. 14:30

    Royal Palace National Museum

    Historic

    Closed at lunchtime and on Tuesdays, and no photography or bags inside. Ninety minutes covers it. Haw Pha Bang, the tall gilded chapel in the grounds, holds the gold Buddha the town is named after.

  2. 16:30

    Wat Xieng Thong

    Other

    Twenty minutes' walk to the tip of the peninsula. Look for the pink glass mosaic on the rear wall and the royal funeral carriage in the shed beside it, a gilded barge with seven-headed serpents on the prow.

  3. 17:30

    Phou Si Hill

    Nature

    Around 300 steps from the main street, more from the river side. Go up by half past five, take water, and expect company; it is the one thing everybody in town does at the same time.

  4. 19:15

    Khao Soi Street Stall

    Eat

    A stall at the end of the night market doing Luang Prabang khao soi, a tomato and minced pork noodle soup, from about five. Two dollars, plastic stools, and the best cheap dinner in town.

With more time: The night market fills the main street from about five, selling textiles, paper lanterns and Hmong embroidery, and it is one of the better ones in the region because most of it is still handmade. The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre is open until six if you want to know what you are buying.

Day 2 in Luang Prabang

Kuang Si falls, the bears, and a museum of hill tribes

Kuang Si is 30 kilometres south, about 45 minutes in a shared tuk-tuk, and it is the best thing in the province. The water comes off a limestone shelf and falls through a staircase of pools whose colour comes from dissolved calcium carbonate; the main drop is around 50 metres and the pools below it are for swimming, cold enough to be a shock.

Just inside the entrance is a sanctuary for Asiatic black bears rescued from bile farms and the pet trade, run by a charity. It costs nothing extra, takes twenty minutes and is the reason to walk in slowly rather than head straight for the water.

Back in town for the late afternoon, spend an hour in the ethnology museum. Laos has around fifty recognised ethnic groups and the museum is the only place in the country that explains them properly, with the textiles and the shaman's equipment to go with it.

  1. 08:00

    Kuang Si Falls

    Nature

    Shared tuk-tuks leave from the main street when full, from about eight. Go early, walk to the top pool first while the lower ones are empty, and bring something to swim in. Allow four hours including the ride.

  2. 09:00

    Bear Rescue Centre

    Visit

    Inside the falls entrance, run by Free the Bears. Large forested enclosures, hammocks, and boards explaining the bile trade. Twenty minutes on the way in.

  3. 15:00

    Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre

    Visit

    A small, well-made museum on the hill behind the palace covering four of the country's ethnic groups in detail. The shop is a fair-trade outlet for the villages the collection comes from, and the cafe has the best view of any in town.

  4. 19:00

    Dinner on the Nam Khan

    Eat

    The restaurants on the quieter river do lap, grilled Mekong fish stuffed with lemongrass, and sticky rice in a basket. Ten to fifteen dollars for two with Beerlao.

With more time: The Pak Ou caves, two limestone caverns above the Mekong stuffed with several thousand discarded Buddha images, are an alternative half day and are best reached by slow boat upriver rather than by road.

Day 3 in Luang Prabang

Alms at first light, then the bomb museum

Set an alarm for quarter past five. The procession starts as it gets light and lasts about half an hour: two hundred or so monks and novices walking in single file along the main street and the side lanes, collecting sticky rice from people kneeling on mats. It has been happening every morning here for six centuries and it is the reason to have stayed the second night.

Then, before you leave, half an hour at the visitor centre that explains the other thing about Laos. Between 1964 and 1973 the United States dropped over two million tonnes of ordnance on this country, more than it used in the whole of the Second World War, and about a third of the cluster submunitions failed to detonate. They are still being cleared, and they still kill people, mostly farmers and children.

  1. 05:15

    Alms ceremony

    Visit

    Starts around 05:30 and moves down the main street. Watch from across the road, kneel if you are giving, and buy your rice the evening before from a market stall rather than from the roadside sellers.

  2. 06:40

    Breakfast and coffee

    Eat

    Lao coffee grows in the Bolaven Plateau in the south and the cafes here roast it well. Order it black with condensed milk on the side, plus a baguette, which the French also left behind.

  3. 09:00

    UXO Lao Visitor Centre

    Visit

    A small centre with defused cluster bomblets, clearance equipment and survivors' accounts. Free, takes half an hour, and it changes what the countryside outside the window means.

  4. 11:00

    To the station or the airport

    Travel

    Allow 90 minutes to reach the railway station, since the minibus fills before it leaves and the road out is slow. The airport is four kilometres and takes ten.

With more time: With a later train, the Ock Pop Tok weaving centre downstream runs free tours of its dye garden and looms, and Wat Sensoukharam on the main street has a gilded facade that catches the morning sun.

Before you go

Getting there and around

The Laos-China Railway changed how people arrive. Trains from Vientiane take about two hours instead of ten on the road, and the station is 12 kilometres out with shared minibuses meeting every service. Book seats a few days ahead through a hotel or an agent; the ticket system is not friendly to foreigners.

Flights come from Bangkok, Hanoi, Chiang Mai and Vientiane into an airport four kilometres from town. Once you are here, everything in the old town is walkable and a bicycle costs a couple of dollars a day. Tuk-tuks handle the falls and the airport.

The alms ceremony, and how not to ruin it

Tak bat happens every morning at first light, around 05:30, and it is a religious observance rather than a display. Monks walk in single file and lay people kneel to place sticky rice in their bowls.

If you want to watch, stand well back on the opposite pavement, stay quiet, do not use flash, and do not step into the line for a photograph. If you want to take part, buy the rice from a household in advance rather than from the sellers who intercept tourists at the roadside, kneel, remove your shoes, and cover your shoulders. Some residents would rather visitors did not join in at all, and watching respectfully from a distance is never wrong.

Temples, dress and timing

The monasteries are working communities, not exhibits. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before entering a hall, and do not photograph monks without asking. Most open around eight and there is usually a small entrance fee at the larger ones.

November to February is dry and cool, with mornings around 15 degrees, and it is the busy season. March and April bring agricultural burning across northern Laos, which puts a haze over everything for weeks. The rains from May to September are the greenest and the waterfalls are at their fullest.

Eating and money

Lao food is sticky rice, eaten with your hands, and lap, a minced meat salad with herbs, lime and toasted rice powder. Luang Prabang has its own khao soi, a pork and tomato noodle soup that has nothing in common with the Chiang Mai dish of the same name, and a river weed called kaipen that is dried in sheets and fried.

The kip is the currency but dollars and Thai baht are widely accepted. Cash is king; card acceptance outside hotels is patchy and ATMs charge per withdrawal, so take out larger amounts less often.

Luang Prabang is small, and the things worth doing in it are a temple, a hill, a waterfall and a half hour at dawn. That is not a thin itinerary, it is the correct one, because the town is best used as a place to sit still in.

Two nights, one early alarm, and take the train rather than the road.

Or make it a longer trip

These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

How many days do you need in Luang Prabang?
Two nights covers the town, the falls and one dawn. Three nights is better if you want the Pak Ou caves or a slow boat on the Mekong as well, and the town rewards doing very little, so an extra day is rarely wasted.
Should I watch the alms ceremony?
You can, and quietly, from a distance, with your shoulders covered and no flash. It has become a serious problem in recent years: coaches unload, people step into the line, and monks have talked about stopping. Watch from the far pavement and you are welcome.
How do I get from Vientiane to Luang Prabang?
The train, which takes about two hours and costs a few dollars in second class. It replaced a ten hour bus ride over mountain roads that was famous for making people ill. Book ahead; the popular departures sell out.
Is Kuang Si worth the trip?
Yes, and go early. A shared tuk-tuk is about six dollars return and takes 45 minutes each way. The pools are open for swimming, the water is genuinely that colour, and by eleven the lower terraces are full. The bear sanctuary at the entrance is included.
What else is nearby?
Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi upriver for limestone scenery and almost no traffic, three to four hours north, and Vang Vieng and Vientiane south on the railway. Copy this into the planner and add the southbound legs if you are working your way down the country.