Luang Prabang – first impact with the Laos paradise

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First impressions from Laos, Luang Prabang 🙂 We went to Asia in the first part of April, after a long and hard-to-wait time. We bought the plane tickets at the beginning of January. We chose destinations after many failed attempts to combine 4 countries in 4 weeks. In a natural order of things, I wanted relaxation, fun, visiting important destination points, beach and a little bit of shopping in the end. Obviously, the shopping side was my secret plan 🙂 It was the first time I left for a month with just a hand baggage in which I put the necessary and a small backpack with the the camera. We chose to fly again with Qatar Airways and, after a two-hour stopover in Doha, during which we searched 3 times for the smoking area, and as many times we also forgot where it was, we took the plane to Bangkok.

We landed in Thailand around 7 am and, having no baggage, we passed through the transit area to the departure terminal to Luang Prabang – Laos. Landing in Luang Prabang was the time when I started hating the planes with propellers, and to my despair, this was just the beginning, because as I was going to find out , in Asia you only fly with such planes. I am not a fan of air travel at all, on the contrary, I am very agitated and scared by any tremor. This time, however, things were more complicated, the one hour flight seemed eternal. There were so much turbulent that I was often sure that I would end up in the mountains of Laos, especially as I remembered that one a three years ago, a Lao Airlines plane crashed into the Mekong River.

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We were approaching the landing and as I stood in the window and carefully looking at the plane propeller, throwing my eyes from time to time on the mountains that threatened us under our feet, our propeller plane entered into an air gap and suddenly lost altitude. It was the moment when some ladies started screaming and the sensation I felt was that, in the absence of the seat belt, we would have been thrown out of the chairs. It was ugly, very ugly, and although I was very scared, I did not make a sound. After the plane recovered, my tears started pouring and I started to shake.

With my legs still shaking, we arrived in Luang Prabang around noon and we stayed at Villa Champa, a nice and caretaking guesthouse next to the Mekong River, where I was greeted with a fruit plate I was deeply missing.

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We had no sleep for more than 30 hours, but that did not convince us to stay in the room, so we went out to know the area and establish the first contact with the extremely calm and nice people in town.

The target I established was the identification of a massage salon, fortunately there were many, but as we were hungry, we looked for a place to eat. The first shock was the extremely low price. I paid about $6 for two people.

I discovered the Lao beer and we immediatly became friends 🙂

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After a good and restful sleep in our beautiful room from Villa Champa,  we went out into the night market and spent the evening in the stalls with cooked food on the spot, fresh fruit juices, clothes, souvenirs and many jewels.

After a dinner with everything in a dish that cost us $1 per person, we went to the Mekong shore and enjoyed a lao beer before going to sleep.

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Only that the plans were going to change because I remembered promising myself a massage. My husband begged me to forget the massage and go to sleep, because it was very late, and we were tired, but I was only thinking about a foot massage. Who was there – except me – at 23:00 by Luang Prabang, looking for a place in one of the many massage parlors? It may seem slightly hilarious that at that time there would be no one on the street, but on the first evening in Los I was surprised that from 21:00 you can not find many shops and restaurants open, the world goes to sleep and the city sinks lightly into the darkness. No trace of fun or music to the fullest. As a matter of fact, the city breathes through all the spiritual pores, everywhere you see temples and Buddhist monks.

This place was exactly what we needed so we could forget our country’s turmoil and have a few days just for us alone.

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There will be some adventures that I have lived around this splendid city. Until then, I leave you with some photos and promise you beautiful stories 🙂

All the best!

Related posts:

  1. Luang Prabang – primul impact cu paradisul din Laos
  2. 10 + 1 reasons to visit Luang Prabang – Laos
  3. New Year – Songkran – in Luang Prabang, Laos
  4. Three unforgettable experiences in Laos – Luang Prabang

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