Situated at about twenty miles from Louang Prabang, this is a large waterfall and can be reached by Touktouk (taxi) or minivan in under an hour.
The scenery leading to Kuang Si is magnificent. You will find all the tints of green imaginable, open spaces where there is nothing but a few bamboo houses standing in the middle of rice fields and a few buffalo here and there. We cross a few Lao Loum and Lao Soung villages whose traditional houses ; made from wood, bamboo and plaited bamboo are all along the side of the road.
For some years now, due to the abundance of tourists, the way of (...)

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About 12 miles from Luang Prabang, going south to Vientiane, the Tadsae waterfall (pronounced Tatsay) is only really interesting to see during the rain season, or during the few weeks following this period; as it has a very unequal flow, which is sometimes even non-existant, for the rest of the year.
Not visited as much by tourists as other places, there are a lot of young Laotians who (as you can see in the photo) bathe fully clothed in the summer. They bathe fully clothed so as to avoid any problems with suggestive underwear.
The waterfall, even though it is not in such a splendid (...)

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Luang Prabang has been making cloth since it has been a religious and economical centre as well as being a centre of authority. Spinning, weaving and embroidery is carried out manually, which give the finished products a quality which you can only find in a very few countries. Their silk is completely natural.
2 villages have really concentrated on these activities, and you must go and visit them if you want to really understand the manufacturing process :
Ban Phanom
Ban Xieng (...)

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The Hmong and Kamou villages surround the town of Luang Prabang. They are situated a few miles from the old capital, and on the surrounding heights.
These last few years, the tendence has been to get the villages (houses and inhabitants) to come down to the road sides. Luang Prabang just like all the others. You will notice this especially on the road to the Kuang Xi waterfall. The reasons brought up were so that they could profit from the sanitary, educational and security systems, whilst getting rid of the opium problem.
If some of the villages can be visited quite easily by touktouk (...)

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Situated on the opposite bank of the Mekong River, at a 10 minute boat-ride downstream from Luang Prabang (expect to pay 3 to 7 dollars for the return fare) the 300 inhabitants of the small village of Ban Tchan, have specialized themselves on manufacturing pottery and bricks (which are much used in Luang Prabang) as well as terracotta tiles.
The raw material is taken from the surrounding area, mixed, processed, handled, shaped and fired on the site. Everybody participates in this activity, even the children amuse themselves by creating small objects representing animals, vases and ash (...)

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About 2 miles from Luang Prabang, upstream from the Nam Khan river, you can find the Wat Phon Phau on top of a small hill which is looked after by female monks. Male bonzes are dressed in a yellow robe (sometimes orange or light brown) as Buddha recommended, when he said that they should wear 3 odd pieces of clothing. The women wear a sort of white kimono.
The Buddhist religion differentiates the conditions of men and women. Man is supposedly the last stage of reincarnation, the only real one on the road to Nirvana, in other words the end of the cycle.
Boys are obliged to retire to a (...)

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The Pak Ou Caves are one of the most treasured religious symbols of the Louang Prabang Province. Several legends tell stories of this site where, over the years, thousands of statues of Buddha have been deposited.
Situated upstream from the Mekong, at about 20 miles from Luang Prabang, the caves are accessible by touktouk (taxi) or by boat, the boat is often the transport chosen, being as its much more comfortable (the road is pretty rugged for 6 or 7 miles) and more pleasant (the trip on its own is worth it).
You need to count an hour and a half by boat to get there and three quarters (...)

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