Why Luang Prabang is the Place for 30-Somethings to Party in Laos

When we left Vang Vieng, I felt a bit relieved. We had only been there for three nights, but I already had a sense of the complicated relationship between Laos and tourism. I know the tourist dollars are valuable, but tourism has a legacy (especially in Vang Vieng) of bringing its own share of problems.

And to be honest, I didn’t necessarily feel like we fit in Vang Vieng. Weaving our way to the bar at Sakura through a throng of sweaty, carefree and/or anxiety-ridden twenty-somethings who are down for anything made us feel pretty old. I bought two vodka tonics to get my free Sakura tank top — yes you have to buy them both at once and yes I felt like a dweeb double fisting vodka tonics. I only ended up drinking one. (I passed the other off to a girl who was hanging out with a group of Brits we had met the day before – which honestly was pretty dodgy of me.)

So when we finally pulled in to Luang Prabang after six hours in a death-defying, jaw-droppingly gorgeous minibus ride, I didn’t know what to expect. Turned out Luang Prabang was just my speed.

Hospitality

In Vang Vieng we regularly had to wake up the sleeping front desk guy to get our room key. When we arrived at our hotel in Luang Prabang, we were given chilled welcome drinks and sat down with an employee who gave us a quick overview of the town and marked up a map with all sorts of helpful suggestions. Some of the energy that had disappeared during our rough and rowdy days in Vang Vieng came bubbling back. Luang Prabang was going to be vastly different than Vang Vieng, I could already tell.

Food

If Vang Vieng where twenty-somethings go to party, Luang Prabang where thirty-somethings go crazy in their own way – mainly with languid meals and frequent coffee breaks.

From unassuming noodles to buttery French pastries to a ‘secret’ pizza place an Italian expat set up in his backyard, our meals were far and above the slapped together (but tasty) drunk food Vang Vieng seemed to specialize in.

But the best place of all was Tamarind. We were sneaking little bastards getting into Tamarind. This is the kind of place where you definitely have to make reservations, but someone was unfortunately late for theirs and we snagged their open table.

The story of Tamarind, told in their mammoth menu, is extraordinary. As a child, Joy Ngeuamboupha was sent by his father to Luang Prabang to study at the Buddhist temple. He had fifty cents and had never been to the city before. From the courage of him and his family, that simple walk when he was eleven lead him to open one of the most sought-after restaurants in Luang Prabang. The menu celebrates Laotian food, and our waiter helpfully instructed us on how to eat the dishes in the sampler platter we ordered. I’d recommend going to Tamarind early in your visit to Luang Prabang since the menu also has a wealth of information about the Buddhist monks and how to behave at the ritual dawn alms ceremony.

And the coffee…

Culture

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a frozen-in-time colonial center and lovingly maintained pagodas and wats scattered all around the town. You can drag yourself out of your comfy bed before dawn for the traditional alms ceremony, but if you just can’t bear to wake up that early on vacation don’t worry. The orange flash of the monks’ robes around every corner.

However, just like in Vang Vieng, the tourist industry has invaded and set up shop in Luang Prabang. Yes, the insides of these hundred years old colonial houses now host wine bars, tour operators, and postcard vendors.

Walk beyond the protected houses of the center and you’ll see the less-polished Luang Prabang, the one with no sidewalks along busy roads and scrappy yappy dogs roaming the streets, where Boyfriend made sure I had my camera safely put away so no one could snatch it as they drove by. The once calm and reflective dawn alms ceremony is spoiled by tourists, who practically jump in line with the monks to take flash photos.

Visiting Laos provoked a lot of thought about responsible tourism for me. Tourism has done wonderful things for people like Joy, who was able to build a popular restaurant celebrating his country’s culture and educating visitors on cuisine and custom. But there’s a very ugly side of tourism in Laos. It was less present in Luang Prabang than in Vang Vieng, but in a similar way I would caution extra consideration about the effect your actions might have on the local community.

Tubing down a river with sloshed backpackers might have a certain ‘cross it off the list’ factor, sure. But given the choice, you’ll find me over-swirling my wine at a colonial-housed restaurant, wondering where my bread basket is at 6:30. Every time.

People are often very polarized about Luang Prabang — they either love it or hate it. Have you been? What were your thoughts?