Day 0: Arrival Day

I wanted to provide follow-up of what we did in Luang Prabang. For context, we’re a family of four Americans, with our kids just completing high school. We stayed at the 3 Nagas –it was a great property with incredible staff. Other reviews of 3 Nagas points out the squeaky floors… very true. We had a family from India arrive above us a couple days into our stay and their middle of the night heaving walking woke us up.

We arrived from Siam Reap in the evening. The Loca app (think Grab for Laos) would only allow us to book a car for a max of 3 people, so we took a cab. I’m pretty sure the taxi manager ripped us off as we were charged $16 USD to get to the hotel when the coupons had the equivalent KIP at 50% this.

We ate dinner at the hotel, and it was very good. The spices are toned down for white people, but overall the food was excellent.



Day 1:

We had breakfast in the hotel as part of our room. The food and service was outstanding. Coffee was unlimited and you could order multiple items off the menu. There was a mix of western and “Lao” food (not really Laotian, but perhaps Lao inspired?).

We explored the historic district and visited the old palace. By midday we were dying from the heat. We had massages from a random place on the street and then retired to the AC for a while. At dinner time, we left the hotel and walked down the street to one of the local restaurants and had dinner.

Day 2:

I woke up early and observed the morning Alms from across the street at the hotel. I had read about disruptive tourists and initially didn’t really observe anything that I thought was above-and-beyond. However, a busload of Chinese tourists arrived and there were photographers and videographers who were recording every aspect of the ritual. I’m not sure if the folks taking pictures were part of the tour or if they were professionals as the cameras were high-end and they seemed to be focused on capturing certain individuals in the group. As the ritual wound down, someone came up to me and took an uncomfortably closeup picture of me… it was all kind of strange.

We went to the Kuang Si Waterfalls using a cab that I arranged through the hotel. While the car was a bit pricey, our driver was outstanding and spoke impeccable English. In addition to seeing the falls, we stopped by the Buffalo dairy and ate some ice cream, stopped at the Civet Coffee place, and stopped at the Luang Prabang Elephant Sanctuary long enough to realize that the elephants there were being abused. The waterfalls were a definite highlight… we swam in the water… it was chilly, but a great break from the heat! Make sure you bring water shoes/tevas/etc. for swimming as the natural surface of the pools is irregular and rocky with some tree branches, etc, strewn on the bottom.

That evening we went around the corner from the hotel and had dinner at a place 1 block east where you grilled your own meat and created your own soup with provided vegetables.

Day 3:

We decided to “take it easy” and walked around a little in the morning. We booked a sunset cruise on the Khopfa Mekong Cruise. The cruise itself was great. While it was mostly cloudy, we really enjoyed seeing the shoreline and the beauty of the Mekong River. The crew was great. There were drinks and light food available for sale –unfortunately I needed to stop at an ATM and they didn’t take credit cards once on the boat. In comparison to other boats circling along the Mekong, I can say that the Khopfa was one of the best choices… the others had various gimmicks including young girls dancing, loud dance party music, and/or the condition of the vessel wasn’t as nice.

Day 4:

I booked cooking class at the Tamarind. It started at 8:45 with a trip to the local market (not the morning market, but the market in town). After a tour of the market, they drove us to a house set into the jungle with a whole outdoors (sheltered) cooking setup. The property was beautiful, and there were some small waterfalls in the area increasing the peaceful feeling of the area.

We made five dishes –we ate four of them for lunch and then made mango sticky rice for dessert. The food was outstanding and our instructors were everything you could want. Class ended around 2 and we were dropped off at Tamarind maybe 30 minutes later.

Mrs. Dog had developed food poisoning overnight from Day 3 and wasn’t able to participate in the cooking class. The 3 Nagas took great care of her and put her in an unused room for the afternoon and even brought her some toast and tea. We checked out, said goodbye to the staff, and caught the evening flight to Hanoi.



We really enjoyed our time in Luang Prabang. It fell into the middle of a 3-week trip to SE Asia for us and the speed of LP provided a great break between Bangkok and Hanoi. The town was more expensive than Siem Reap, but not awfully so. We felt incredibly safe and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.