Once a staging post for Chinese merchants, this little border town is now best known as the launching point for slow boat rides to Luang Prabang.
One of the top things to do in Laos is to embark on a half-day or day excursion to explore the stunning Kuang Si Waterfalls located in the vicinity of Luang Prabang. About 30km (20 miles) south of the town are the multi-tiered Kuang Si Waterfalls, replete with beguiling limestone formations and crystal-clear pools. Food vendors keep most of the local visitors at the lower level of the falls, which can be very crowded during holidays. Up a trail to the left of the lower cascade is a second fall with a pool which makes for good swimming and is generally quieter. The trail continues to the top of the falls, though after rain it can be dangerously slippery.
Surrounded by forested hills that remain lush even when the rest of the countryside is a dusty brown in the hot season, LUANG NAMTHA is the north’s most touristy town, though it still has a quiet local charm, away from the travellers’ cafés and tour operators. The town is a popular base from which to access beautiful Nam Ha NBCA, with a whole range of activities available, from rafting and kayaking on the Nam Tha, to exploring the surrounding area by bike and trekking to hill-tribe villages. Most of the tourist services are situated in the new town, 6km north of the old town – exploring the latter gives an idea of what Luang Namtha was like before the advent of tourism. It’s a great place in which to hire a bicycle or motorbike – just a few kilometres’ ride will take you into small traditional dusty-street villages, surrounded by rice paddies and grazing buffalo. In the town itself, the only formal attraction is the Luang Namtha Provincial Museum, now housed in Lao–Vietnam Friendship Centre, where you’ll find displays of traditional hill-tribe costumes and artefacts, a model depicting battles that took place in the area during the civil war and a rusty collection of weaponry. There are a number of places offering Lao sauna and massage in town – the perfect way to relax after a few days’ trekking. Opposite Panda Restaurant, just west of the main street, is a good but basic place offering both, while further north Manyvone Massage offers a range of massages, including a welcome post-trek foot massage. The new nightmarket, opposite Manychan on the main street, is rather disappointing, though it’s a good choice for a cheap dinner. The main bulk is made up of a rather tacky mix of clothes, houseware and pirate DVDS, aimed largely at a local crowd. Much more interesting is the daily fresh market, five minutes’ walk west of the main street, where stalls groan under the weight of fruit and vegetables. The best way to spend a day in Luang Namtha is to hire a bike and explore the local area – the map provided with all hire bikes details some good routes. The best takes you south through the old town to The Boat Landing (a good stop for lunch), from where you head east into the Black Thai villages of Ban Pasak, Ban Pong and Ban Tongkwa, following dusty streets through paddyfields with children shouting sabai di (hello) as you pass. The last stretch is on a generally very quiet main road, which loops past a few more villages before taking you back to the town. Luang Namtha was heavily contested during Laos’s civil war and was razed to the ground. Once the fighting stopped, the surrounding hills were stripped of their trees and the mammoth logs were trucked away to China. Today, the once devastated and depopulated valley is thriving again, and from the lush surroundings you’d be hard-pressed to believe how recently it had taken place.
Luang Prabang, også skrevet Louang Prabang (lao: ຫລວງພະບາງ), er en by i Laos, med en folkemengde på om lag 50 000 innbyggere (2005). Fra 1300-tallet var byen i lange perioder hovedstad i riket Lan Xang, som geografisk til en viss grad tilsvarer dagens Laos. Legender forteller om byens tilkomst. Prins Fa Ngum flyktet til Angkor men kom tilbake, og med hjelp av en hær fra Angkor tok han makten i 1353 og valgte Luang Prabang som sin hovedstad. Byen har fått sitt navn fra en Buddhaskulptur (Phrabang Buddha) som ble bragt dit fra Vientiane i 1512. På grunn av stridigheter ble hovedstaden i 1563 lagt til Vientiane.
Established in 1993, the Nam Ha NBCA is one of Laos’s most convenient and easily accessible conservation areas. Covering 1470 square kilometres contiguous with the Xieng Yong Protected Area in Yunnan, China, the park straddles two high mountain chains and boasts two peaks in excess of 2000m. The NBCA is an important biological habitat for many forest creatures, including 37 species of large mammals and 288 species of birds. However, it’s unlikely you’ll see much in the way of wildlife on a trek into the park – though the forest teems with birdsong. The best known of the park’s rivers are the Nam Ha and the Nam Tha, both of which are developed for kayaking and rafting trips. The park is accessible by car, with Route 3 crossing the NBCA in two separate places. Within the NBCA itself are some 25 hill-tribe villages, the most populous ethnic groups being Akha, Hmong, Khmu and Lantaen, and multi-day trekking tours between these settlements are also possible. More information, as well as bookings for organized tours within the NBCA, can be obtained through the Luang Namtha Guide Services Office, Green Discovery or the Boat Landing Guesthouse.
Nong Khiaw is a Laotian mountain town set on the Nam Ou river. Nestled in a valley under towering karst mountains, it’s the perfect stop for both adventure-seekers and those looking for some rest and relaxation. Whatever you decide to do with your time here, expect breathtaking scenery accompanied by a lively hub of guesthouses, restaurants, and bars to suit anyone’s needs. Nong Khiaw is not the undiscovered, hidden-gem destination it perhaps once was (or as some other blogs suggest), but the nature here is still unparalleled. Though we were a bit shocked by the number of tourists in such a small town, we still thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
Any prolonged travel in the north will eventually involve a stop at the rather charmless town of OUDOMXAI, sitting at the junction of routes 1 and 4. However, with good facilities, a few decent places to stay and excellent transport connections, it’s not a bad place to spend the night. The best way to spend your time in Oudomxai is with a visit to the Red Cross Herbal Sauna and Massage – the perfect way to relax after a bone-numbing bus journey. The money goes towards supporting the Red Cross’s work in helping and educating local people. To get here, bear left off the main road (if coming from the bus station) and follow the signs. Head up Phou Sai Hill, just southeast of the centre, for a good view over the town; the hill is crowned by a white stupa with a golden spire. The tourist office runs a number of interesting tours and treks in the area, including a walking tour of the town, a one-day visit to beautiful Muang La, stopping at hot springs along the way, and a three-day trek to Khmu villages.
Located close to the midway point between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, the tiny settlement of Vang Vieng is a convenient place to break the journey between these two towns in either direction. Set by the banks of the Nam Song, amidst a startlingly beautiful natural terrain of limestone karsts, Vang Vieng originally developed as a backpacker stopover. It quickly developed a reputation as an anything-goes party town – complete with raucous full-moon parties, as though a Thai beach resort had been transported to landlocked Laos. Today the main attraction is the surrounding countryside, and the town has become an attractive, relaxed base for rock climbing, cycle tours, kayaking and other outdoor activities, with some excellent boutique accommodations and decent places to eat.
