Introduction
I'm currently travelling across a few countries in South East Asia - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. With only time, limited money and zero plans made, let's see where this adventure takes me! In my previous post, I talked about the 20 hour bus experience i had between Chiangmai and Luang Prabang and my gratefulness for the basic amenities and privileges Malaysia have.
I plan to write about the majority of my activities, experiences and thoughts throughout this trip not just for my future self but for anyone else interested as well.
On Day 6, I just arrived in Luang Prabang at 5:30am with almost no energy but I still had to explore this sleepy town that every backpacker in South East Asia have to visit.
In the Day
We stayed in the Old District of Luang Prabang which is pretty central in Luang Prabang and easy to get around to the different sites and temples to visit.
We spent most of the morning exploring the morning market and working. Since we arrived in Luang Prabang so early in the morning, we got to experience the morning market that was filled with pretty interesting things. From silk worms too live eels, from chopped up monitor lizard to live owls in a basket. Everything was either alive or still bleeding, talk about freshness.
Unfortunately, with the lack of sleep, didn't think to take photos while wandering the morning market
We definitely tried to walk around the town a bit to get our bearings but the sun was just so unbearable! So much worse than Malaysia. So we spent the bulk of the late morning/early afternoon working. We did manage to cover the whole western side of town which was filled with temples and riverside Cafes.
At mid-afternoon, the sun was just too hot that we had to hide out in our hostel for awhile. But on the side, the plentiful fruit smoothies were amazing! I probably had 6 in the 2 days we were in Luang Prabang
Catching the Sunset
As the sun began to set, we decided to climb the hill in the middle of the city called Phousi Mountain. Of course, it came with another set of stairs with 300+ steps. But the view from the top of the mountain was nothing less than breathtaking.
Traversing the Night
As we came down from Phousi Mountain, the night market was already set up at the bottom of the hill. Honestly, it wasn’t as interesting as I hoped it’d be. There were maybe about 100 stalls, but every stall was more or less selling the same things that you may only find 5 different set of merchandise at all.
Our night really started kicking in when we walked a littlefurther out of town and found this really chill riverside bar called Utopia. That name was really aptly given as the bar was super chill and relaxed. They set a really nice ambience with the lights and music. It was totally packed with other backpackers.
In my mission to order a tower of beer, we found another group of backpackers from Netherlands and Michigan, US that we hungout with the rest of the night. Our group started with 5 of us but ended up with 9 with people from Sweden and U.K. joining us along the night.
After 2 towers of beers and the 10:30pm curfew in town. We headed to the only place in town that doesn’t have a curfew - strangely, a bowling alley.
Key Takeaways
Today was a really chill day and one of the few days where we really got to bond with other backpackers. I’m definitely very envious of their lifestyle but not sure if I will be able to do it myself.
Most of them are travelling anywhere between 6 months to a year. The guy from the Netherlands was just travelling indefinitely. Must be nice earning Euros while spending it in South East Asia.
They are some of the most down-to-earth, fun-loving people I’ve met that are just looking to enjoy live to the fullest and experience living.