Temples of Luang Prabang

This is a quick break from my 2022 European vacation series and is dedicated to my most recent travel destination: Luang Prabang in Laos. Finally, D and I got the chance to explore one of the places I have always been meaning to visit early this month.

Our visit to Luang Prabang was a great way to cap this year’s travels. As the plane descended, I was in awe at the sight of the mountains and the lush greens from the window. We arrived in the afternoon and after settling in the hotel we headed off to watch the sunset along the Mekong River.

Luang Prabang is known for its Buddhist Temples, so I’m dedicating this post to show the ones we explored.

On our second day D and I rode the bicycles rented out by our hotel for our temple tour. The first temples we visited were right next to each other: the Wat Aham and the Wat Makmo.

Afterwards we rode off next to the Nam Khan River and chanced upon the steps leading up to the Phousi Hill which also has a Buddhist temple atop. It is known for offering a wonderful panoramic view of Luang Prabang. Our hotel host said that the best time to climb Phousi Hill was in the morning and at sunset. We got there before noon and I saw that the path up was lined by trees so we figured to check it out while we had the energy. There were interesting stops before getting to the top, like Buddha’s Footprint temple.

After Day 2, we didn’t get to visit other temples, but we made up for it on the next two days. D and I did not have a guided tour when we walked to the temples the following days. Thankfully we had our pocket wifi and online information helped us in our self-guided tour. In several temples we visited we saw monks and heard their prayer at dusk.

On our last day in Luang Prabang, we walked to the temple that was closest to our hotel, Wat Pa Phon Phao. It is on a hill, and when we walked it was just after sunrise and we had the place all to ourselves. The atmosphere was very serene and the view here was great. I love how the trees of Bougainvillea added to the beauty of the place.

More to come about what we did during our five days’ stay in this beautiful city!