7th January: Luang Prabang, Laos

Feeling rejuvenated by the relaxed vibe of Luang Prabang, we decided to get up pre-dawn for the daily alms giving. This is where monks collect rice from people on the streets in their bowls. We saw a few small groups of monks and respectfully kept our distance across the street and lowered ourselves below the height of the monks. Unfortunately, some tourists were interfering in ways deeply frowned upon and we felt like intruders just for being nearby. Rather than following, we took a different road and came across a larger group further up. Again, it was interesting to briefly see the ritual, but we didn’t feel overly comfortable and quickly left.

One success was that at 6:30, train tickets opened for our missing link – getting to Vientiane in three days’ time. These are difficult to buy, going on sale very late either in person (not ideal as the stations are out of town) or on an app which requires a Loatian, Thai, or Chinese phone number. Fortunately, I’d been able to set up an account whilst I had an active Chinese phone number and wasn’t required to revalidate it. We successfully bought tickets ourselves (rather than overpaying an agency like most foreign visitors do) and we’ll be on board the ideal lunchtime train, meaning a 2-hour train ride instead of the 8-hour bus!

Walking back along the Mekong, it had become thick with fog in the past half an hour. You couldn’t see the other bank in places, and it rolled coolly up into our faces. The boat traffic disappeared and reappeared eerily. The morning market was predominantly food based. We were able to take a big bunch of beautiful mini bananas; delicious purple sweet potato sticky rice, with coconut in banana leaf; and a freshly squeezed orange juice. After eating these and breakfast at the hotel, we promptly fell back asleep!

To wake back up, we took a coffee and a Lao red tea from a nearby street stall. The tea was lovely, strong and sweet but we think it might have contained milk despite being told it didn’t. I find it odd that dairy products are so common in east and southeast Asia given that most of the population here can’t digest lactose. They also made us two tofu and salad baguettes, which filled a hole but still didn’t quite hit the banh mi cravings.

Walking back into town, we passed the school from which kids as young as 10/11ish were driving themselves home on motorbikes! Along the Nam Khan tributary, heavy construction was underway to stop erosion. Unfortunately, the project means that the famous bamboo bridge hasn’t been built this year. It wasn’t as peaceful as it might normally be, but we still enjoyed our stroll with a watermelon, lime, and mint smoothie.

Up the hill, we stumbled across Vat Souvannakhiri, where a peaceful monk was bonding with half a dozen street dogs in the courtyard. Walking around the gorgeous white and golden temple, we were fascinated by the amazing fragrance of sapodilla trees. Another one for the dream garden! In a side building, we learned of the history of meditation in Luang Prabang and the resurgence of vipassana here.

One of the main temple complexes, of the 30+ in town, is Vat Xienthong. This has a gorgeous array of colourful buildings lined with glass mosaics, stupas, and carvings. Numerous butterflies of many colours and sizes flitted amongst the pink and orange flowers in the courtyard.

Unfortunately, this location also attracted the dreaded Chinese tour groups. Quite frankly, they were disrespectful to the point where they should’ve been thrown out. Spitting on the floor of a temple and posing for endless photos in sacred locations. I certainly don’t want to try to gatekeep cool places and people from anywhere, not least neighbouring countries, should be able to visit. I put up with their cultural desecration and rudeness in China, as it’s there country not mine. However, they really need to learn to respect local people, and also other travellers, when outside of their country.

We ended the day with another fresh coconut by the river and dinner from the night market. Sticky pat Lao tofu noodles; incredibly fragrant tofu lap salad; spring rolls; and a peanutty pat Thai went down a treat.

Now that our itinerary is set, we decided to book our flight home which was a little bittersweet. We’ve got 10 weeks in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. I managed to use some points to book us on the most convenient flight back from Hanoi via Qatar. £124 each in fees was a pretty good deal given the reasonably priced alternatives either took in multiple long stops or flew over potentially dangerous Russian airspace. Booking this particular flight without points would’ve been £600+ each. Not only that, but we still have enough points left for a return trip anywhere in the world! Definitely worth the effort, as we’ve only been collecting these points for 9 months.