Jaunted

Activities in Laos involve wandering around its picturesque streets, admiring the preserved, wooden colonial architecture and stopping occasionally to visit one of its many historic pagodas. These also the popular pursuit of climbing uphill to visit Phu Si temple and take in the view of the surrounds from up top.

Meanwhile, the street scene reveals storefronts that are primarily tour agencies, restaurants, and internet cafes, indicating the ubiquity of the town’s focus on the tourism industry. Internet costs about $1 per hour, while restaurant food starts at about $4 and a room in one of the many wooden boutique guesthouses starts at about $10.

The Royal Palace Museum, formerly the royal residence before the leftist Pathet Lao ousted the family from power, is also in the center of town. The room dedicated to gifts received by foreign dignitaries made us proud to be American; whereas most countries presented fine silver or porcelain tea sets to the king and queen, President John Kennedy gave rocks—retrieved from the moon landing months earlier.

Though the entire town, a v-shaped strip of land bordered by two rivers, is walkable in about a half hour, the most popular sites are outside of town. If you venture outside, head to the Pak Ou caves, with their graveyard of abandoned Buddhas, and Tat Kuang Si falls, with tiers of crystal pools good for swimming topped by a high waterfall dropping from a limestone cliff. Visiting these sights requires boating upriver and riding a sangtheaw—blue pick-up tricks with benches in the bed.

After returning from a day trip to the falls or the caves, we recommend checking out the Luang Prabang nightlife. The city reaches its liveliest peak in the evenings, when vendors set up a lengthy night market along the town’s main street, stocked with handmade afghans, embroidered purses, and children’s books that are comically absurd; “Giant mosquito kills human” was one gem that would make a great gift.

At the end of the market is a row of fruit shake stalls, where you pick out a plastic cup filled with the fruit of your choice which then then take and pour in some milk, a little ice, and blend. The shakes cost 3,000 kip, or about 40 cents. There’s also a row of food stalls, serving fried fish and chicken, noodle and rice dishes and one of northern Laos’ specialties—dried meat. The buffalo, dipped in flavoring that tastes like honey barbeque with a hint of sesame, puts Slim Jim to shame. It's just one of the many culinary treats you can enjoy when stepping off the beaten path in Laos.

Stay tuned tomorrow as Claire bravely enters the "backpacker ghetto" of Vang Vieng.

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· Laos Field Trip [Jaunted]