Laos Tour

We started with three nights at the Salang Prabang a small hotel on the Mekong side of Luang Prabang, the ‘Jewel of Indochina’,and a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site, where tour buses and large vehicles are banned from the centre.

On our first morning we set our alarm very early to watch the Buddhist monks walking through the town collecting food, later after breakfast we toured the city and several of the Buddhist temples situated around the area. Luang Prabang has several restaurants serving plentiful cheap Laos and Western food and of course Laos beer, which seems to form part of the staple diet of everyone (I can particularly recommend the Dark Beer).

The second day we had signed up for a cookery lesson at the Tamnak Lao Restaurant. Both my wife and I were a bit nervous about doing this, not quite knowing what to expect, but Chefs Leng and Phia put us at ease with a chat about what the day had in store. We first went to the market to buy supplies, fresh meat, vegetables, herbs and spices.

In all we were shown how to prepare 7 dishes, we had to attempt 5, cooking for ourselves, and as they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so for lunch we ate the first 2 dishes we had prepared, and very nice they were too.

After lunch we cooked our final 3 selections, which we had for our meal later in the afternoon. The whole day was great fun and suffices to say we didn’t eat again until breakfast the next day.

The following day we took a relaxing 3 hour boat ride down the Mekong to the Kamu Lodge Eco Hotel, the weather was glorious and we arrived just in time for lunch, after lunch we checked into our tents and a local guide walked us around the Kamu local village.

The following morning we had to do the journey in reverse, thankfully with the flow of the river, the journey back only took 2 hours.

Before we flew to Vientiane, we took a tuk-tuk to the Tad Lau waterfalls where both locals and tourists were enjoying a swim in the cool water. We packed a city tour of Vientiane on our only full day, but one day wasn't enough.

Before we left we attended a Baci ceremony. Its purpose is to call escaped spirits back to the body, a tradition that is very important for Lao people before major events such as weddings, births, travel or when welcoming friends. We arrived in Pakse to heavy rain and low cloud, we travelled up to the Bolaven Plateau for one night, by the time we arrived the weather cleared, and we spent the afternoon watching the hotel elephants bathing in the river then bedding down for the night in the nearby jungle.

We then travelled down to the 4000 Islands area of Loas for a couple of nights. We took a boat ride down to the area where you can see the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins (technically you go to Cambodia to see them); we then cycled back to the village for lunch before taking the boat back to the hotel. Our final day in Loas was spent travelling to see some waterfalls on the Mekong then we crossed the border to Ubon Ratchathani for our flight to Bangkok, and onwards to Phuket where were staying at Mom-Tris Villa Royale hotel. It was the second year in succession we had stayed there. It is a lovely hotel, with excellent customer service and renowned restaurants. Unfortunately the weather hadn't read the script and for 6 days we hit the end of a tropical storm, finally at lunchtime on the last day, the sun broke out.

The new Dubai - Newcastle route really works out well for transfers to the Far East and Australia. We left Phuket at 22:30, and arrived in Newcastle at 12:00, all the flights were either early or on-time, and just to finish the holiday in style we were upgraded on our homeward flight.

I cannot recommend a visit to Loas highly enough, I am confident you'll take the places and people to your hearts.