After our long day riding elephants and swimming in waterfalls, the last thing I wanted to deal with was the sound of banging drums at 4:30 am. I failed to mention this earlier about Le Bel Air, but its proximity is close enough to a wat that you’ll be able to hear the beating of drums early in the morning. It’s not obnoxiously loud, but if you’re a light sleeper bring your earplugs.
Our plan for the day was to take a relaxing river cruise down the Mehkong River to the Pak Ou caves and Whiskey Village. We booked the cruise through the hotel, and for $35 (US) the cruise takes you to those two locations and includes lunch. Our boat was the Nava Mekong. It’s a little higher end than the cheaper cruises in that the boat was bigger and had table settings for meals. The cheaper cruises were more like the traditional Lao long boats, but covered.
For obvious reasons, only do a river cruise if the weather is nice out. I say this because the cruise itself was probably the best part of the tour since the two destinations weren’t exactly that amazing. The Whiskey Village, which we had high hopes for, turned out to be nothing more than a few shacks with women selling bottles of whiskey. Don’t get me wrong, seeing the jars of whiskey with giant scorpions and snakes was awesome, but we were hoping that there was a factory or something. Instead, all the Whiskey Village was was a very poor moonshine outpost. That being said, since we were there we did try some whiskey. It tasted like very strong Saki, not bad but nothing to write home about. We did purchase a few bottles however because they do make great display souvenirs.
From there the cruise headed to the Pak Ou caves, which was the cooler of the two stops. The caves are split into an upper and lower cave and house several hundred mini Buddha statues. The upper cave is a bit of a stair climb to get to and don’t forget to bring a flashlight (our iPhone flashlights worked perfectly well) because the upper cave is pitch black inside. It definitely made the spectacle of seeing all the Buddhas a bit more exciting and mysterious.
On the cruise back, the Nava Mekong offers a pretty delightful lunch made up of samples of Laotian cuisine and then you’re back in Luang Prabang by around 2. We headed for a quick spa session at Hibiscus Spa, which provided a really good massage, but I wouldn’t recommend going there if you’re looking for friendly employees. These people were polite and all, but definitely seemed exhausted and looked like they didn’t want to be there. After that, we went to our favorite dinner experience of the whole trip.
Tamarind is one of the top restaurants to try in Luang Prabang. They offer a cooking class that is recommended in several guidebooks and in hindsight we probably should have taken the class instead of going on the river cruise. Regardless, we went there for dinner and it could arguably be the best meal we had the entire trip. The employees and Tamarind obviously have a genuine interest in showing their patrons what real Laotian food is like. The menu is very in depth; it’s part history lesson on Laos food, part FAQ on best practices for cooking and eating Laos food, and part course offerings. What impressed us was the fact that although we took a good 20 minutes reading the history/FAQ in the menu, the wait staff didn’t disturb us the whole time. It was only when we clearly had finished reading that our waitress politely came by and asked us if we had any questions.
The food at Tamarind is authentic and excellent. The tasters appetizer is like a Laos charcuterie with an assortment of sausages, veggies, sauces, spices, and other meats and is a must try. The Buffalo Laap was also a highlight and that is a ground buffalo meat dish with Laos spices and tripe (apparently Laos style includes tripe). The coolest part of the meal is how you eat all the dishes using the sticky rice. Essentially what you do it take the sticky rice, roll it into a small patty with your hands, and use its stickiness to scoop up all the food. It’s kind of like how you eat Ethiopian food with you hands, but instead of injera the Laotians use the sticky rice. For desert, the Watermelon Chili sorbet is awesome; it’s cool and refreshing with a tiny bit of kick at the end as you swallow. And the whole experience was cheap; it only cost $40 for two people. A definite must-try meal in Luang Prabang, and I plan on returning sometime in the future for the cooking class they offer.
Here and There 