Luang Prabang (Laos)

Luang Prabang:

Laos is a overlooked country.  For reasons I’ll never understand, many travelers completely leave it off their Southeast Asian itineraries.  Sure, there are absolutely no beaches to speak of here—it’s the only landlocked nation in the entire region—but what drew me in was its legendary, laid-back lifestyle.  Despite being a brief one-hour flight from the absolute madhouse of Bangkok, Laos miraculously manages to retain a quiet, untouched charm.

The Quaalude Market and French Indochina Eats

Immediately upon touching down in Luang Prabang, Barbie and I headed straight for the famous night market.  Now, night markets in Asia are usually an action-seeker’s delight—loud, sweaty, chaotic, and packed to the gills with vendors barking at you to buy their stuff.

Well, the night market in Luang Prabang was the polar opposite.  Not only was it completely quiet and uncrowded, but the female Lao vendors were so incredibly mellow that you would have thought they all ate quaaludes prior to setting up shop.  You won’t find any aggressive sales pitches from these refined Lao ladies.  It was so refreshing to casually wander through an outdoor market without your head spinning in all directions from high-pressure tactics.

Luang Prabang itself is a stunning UNESCO World Heritage city known for its endless golden temples, gorgeous French colonial-era architecture, that vibrant night market, and the mighty Mekong River cutting right through the heart of town.

Because it was a part of French Indochina for about 60 years, Luang Prabang also boasts a collection of amazing, French-influenced restaurants that easily rival many major culinary cities in Asia.  The food out here is just so clean and fresh, with a massive focus on farm-to-table cuisine containing zero artificial additives.  They completely omit the unneeded sugar and heavy oils that clog up so many restaurant dishes nowadays.  It was a true culinary feast at every single meal.

Besides eating our absolute asses off, we threw in some cultural visits to the local Wats (temples) and burned off the calories by riding bikes through what is a remarkably bicycle-friendly town.

Dodging Internal Squabbles

Our original game plan was to see a lot more cities and towns throughout Laos, but we ultimately chose to lock ourselves into Luang Prabang and just hang with the monks.

Here’s the deal: about two weeks before our departure, the US State Department issued a low-level travel warning for parts of northern Laos due to some random shootings targeting tourist buses. Since the only method for shuffling between the main stops of Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and the capital city of Vientiane is long-distance ground transportation, we decided to take a hard pass on those other destinations this time around.  We’ll check them out at a later date when tensions cool down.

Why the sudden turmoil in a normally peaceful country full of gentle people?  Apparently, the locals are rightfully pissed off at their government for some greedy nonsense.  China has been acquiring significant land areas in Laos—more than likely via massive bribes to the local officials. This is all occurring under the guise of building “infrastructure projects,” but the reality is that China’s true motive is building small, exclusive Chinese enclaves for their own citizens.  In a few highly isolated cases, disgruntled locals started shooting at vehicles on the main highway between cities, specifically targeting Chinese travelers in transit.

Being Gandhi-like, peace-loving flashpackers, ain’t nobody got time for getting caught in the middle of some internal government squabbles.
Update 2026:  These internal issues have been completely resolved and there are absolutely no issues navigating around this beautiful country.

Therefore, we modified the itinerary on the fly.   We pulled the trigger on plane tickets and headed straight for the “Big Three” Thai islands along the gulf coast—Koh Pha Ngan, Koh Tao, and Koh Samui. It actually turned out to be the perfect time to visit those highly popular, touristy islands because it was the shoulder season.  We avoided the massive hordes of high-season tourists and scored much better rates on luxury accommodations.

The Beginner’s Guide to Asia

In my book, Luang Prabang is hands down one of the absolute best Asian cities to visit for amateur travelers who want an introduction to the continent in the least intimidating way possible.  It is an upscale, tourist-friendly city packed with nice lodging options and world-class restaurants.

Its quiet, tranquil streets are ideal for riding a bicycle to watch local life move in slow motion.  The town is so peaceful that Barbie and I literally rode our bikes to dinner every single night.  Most importantly, a visit here gives you a taste of a deeply relaxed Asian culture filled with genuinely kind, smiling people.

🍽️ The Luang Prabang Culinary Rotation

We ate like absolute royalty here. If you find yourself in town, the following are some good spots:

• L’Elephant Restaurant: High-end, classic French-Lao fusion.
• Le Banneton: Excellent French pastries and croissants in town.
• Tamarind & Tamnak Lao: Authentic Lao tasting menus.
• Joma Bakery Cafe & Le Cafe Ban Vat Sene: Perfect spots to grab a coffee, relax, and people-watch.
• Rosetta Fusion & Khaiphaen: Modern dishes with a great social mission behind them.

LOOSE STOOLS INDEX

• Rating: 9 / 10

The super relaxed atmosphere of Luang Prabang has proven to be a fantastic natural laxative.  The massive ancillary benefit of a visit here was that the town completely relaxed my mind, which in turn completely relaxed my bowels.

Honestly, maybe that is the real reason this place received its UNESCO World Heritage designation? I’m thinking of pitching a brand-new official tourism slogan for the country:

“It’s a slam dunk… book your flight to Luang Prabang and you too can experience solid and consistent bowel movements.”

Thru the Binocs

🕵️‍♂️ Binocular Observation: The Buddhist Chill Factor

We have traveled through quite a few Southeast Asian countries by this point on our round-the-world journey, and the predominant religion practiced across most of them is Buddhism.  Looking through the binoculars, both Barbie and I have consistently observed that the people in Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia seem to exist on a much more relaxed frequency than the rest of the world.

From what I’ve gathered, Buddhism teaches you that we inherently know right from wrong at our core—just like our parents taught us when we were kids.  When we misstep or act out of greed, our body, mind, and spirit slip completely out of alignment.  That makes total, perfect sense to me, so I am 100% down with the Buddhist philosophy.