Our travel day here went without a hitch. We arrived into a very small airport – think Kerry Farranfore. The entry process was a bit of a pain. We were sitting about halfway down the plane, but between Thing One not actually being ready to get off when it was our turn, and The Boy wanting to get back on the airplane, we ended up at the very back of the immigration queue. This was our first taste of the different pace here. Laos is a communist country, but open to tourism, so you can just turn up and get a visa on arrival. But it takes a bit of time. We had to queue once to get the actual visa, and then again to gain entry with it. Thankfully, the whole family were fairly chilled so it went smoothly enough, although it took about an hour and a half.

Our first impression of the hotel was not good. They didn’t have the aircon on so the rooms were baking. When it turned on it seemed to be pathetic. And most importantly of all, Laos is the only part of our trip with a meaningful malaria risk. But the rooms were poorly sealed so it seemed easy enough for mosquitos to get in. They did have nets over the main beds in each room, but not over the third beds we’d asked them to add. Myself and DW looked at each other and we’re seriously concerned if we’re going to be able to hack this place for one night, never mind the six we were booked in for.

But our concerns were misplaced. Within 10 minutes they had the nets sorted for the other beds. The aircon, although a bit slow to kick in, is very good. The hotel used to be the town jail until it was turned into a hotel a few years ago. It’s a small place, built around a central square which was the former prisoner exercise yard. Now it’s a really beautiful, peaceful garden. The staff are really warm and friendly, and it’s nice to wake to cocks crowing nearby. It’s really grown on us over the last few days.

After we had done our best to settle in, we decided to head into town for dinner (the hotel is a 5 minute drive outside). The local mode of group transport is the tuk-tuk (as is the case for most of the region). A tuk-tuk is basically a souped up motorbike attached to a covered trailer with benches. This was our first ever tuk-tuk:

The kids love them, and so do we. They’re cool! And cheap!

A bit of a travesty I know, but we decided to go to a pizza place for dinner. We needed some comfort food after our long day’s travel. DW and me washed ours down with the local brew, BeerLao, which is very tasty I must say.

Afterwards, we went for a stroll around the town. There’s a street market every night selling souvenirs, t-shirts and general knick-knacks, so we perused that and bought a few things.

Luang Prabang itself is stunning. It was the capital of the old kingdom of Laos for several centuries, so there are many medieval era temples. But it was also part of the French Indochina colony, so there’s beautiful colonial style architecture everywhere. The whole town was named a UNESCO world heritages site in 1995, so all of this beauty should be preserved. It’s a small enough place – about 50,000 population – so it has a lovely homely feel to it.

While it’s not exactly Benidorm, it is definitely on the tourist trail for this part of the world, so the town has a fairly touristy feel to it. There are lots of really good restaurants, English is widely spoken, and you can do a whole host of activities from here that are firmly tourist-oriented. You see a lot of western tourists, a mixture of 20-something backpackers and retirees, as well as a huge number of Chinese tourists. So while this is our first taste of the “real” South East Asia, it’s a fairly sanitized one. Although it’s still got that general chaotic feel with street stalls everywhere, dogs and cats running around all over the place, and mopeds and tuk-tuks zipping in and out between each other in near-death swoops. Despite the tourism impact, the town has preserved a beautiful charm that is captivating. I really love it.

Having breakfast at our hotel (Hotel de la Paix):