{"id":2742,"date":"2026-03-04T07:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/cr\/?p=2742"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:41:10","slug":"tue-3rd-mar-luang-prabang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/?p=2742","title":{"rendered":"Tue 3rd Mar – Luang Prabang"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
CR: On the way to the lookout we stumbled across morning Alms giving. This is a controversial practice. It is an old tradition designed to feed the monks while also increasing the amount of good deeds achieved by the civilian donating. These good deeds accrue over a lifetime like points. Now it is a very public tourist experience. There are so many Chinese travellers here. They travel in these huge groups that are so large they need an ear piece to hear their tour guide. It’s impactful and destructive travel. At all the tourist attractions you cannot hear any Laotian, just loud Chinese. They wouldn’t even be putting much money into the local economy as they’d be staying and eating at Chinese run venues.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
CR: We walk up the top of a hill in town to see the sunrise. It’s pretty hazy thanks to burning season so the views aren’t as stunning as I’d hoped. Declan is grouchy because he has to wake up early.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
CR: On the way home we pass through the morning markets. These honeycomb like structures are filled with grubs. Sections are broken off, wrapped in banana leaf and then grilled. Next to her was just a whole deer. The meet was portioned into a plastic bag and the head and hooves sat next to it. Unfortunately breakfast is included in our room rate, otherwise we’d be feasting…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
CR: We had worked up an appetite after so many steps up to the look out.
DW: After two weeks we are reverting back to Western style coffees in the morning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
DW: Today’s activity is the Royal Museum which is basically the old Royal Palace as it was from before the royal family was disposed of in the mid 1970s. Pictured is the Royal Gas Station in the foreground. The palace reflects Lao’s lack of wealth and is basically just a large home with one fun room full of murals. The most ornate items inside the palace are gifts to the Lao royal family from other countries.
CR: I was disappointed at this museum. There was no explanation about the duties of the royals, why they were ousted, or what their legacy is. There’s no information on anything really. It’s one of three in town activities so everyone just ends up here regardless.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
CR: After the national museum we had lunch at a French bakery. French influence is unobservable anywhere but the city. In the old town, which is where the tourists stay, it is notable that all the restaurants with English or French names are full, and the ones with Laotian names are empty.
DW: This bakery is also filled with incredibly loud Chinese tourists. Caitlin and I discuss this after.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
CR: Declan has begun pilfering my book reserves.
DW: Let the record show I have perfectly sized my books for this trip (I still have half of one left – it was too heavy for the day trip, hence being lent a book) and have read more than Cait.
CR: DW did any of the books you selected for the trip get a Recommend Yes? My understanding is this is the first…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
CR: 5-7pm we attend a drop-in English conversational space for students. It’s a program to help Laotian students, many of whom have come from the hilltribes where they don’t even speak Laotian, gain confidence in English. We learn a lot from the kids as it’s meant to be conversational rather than a lesson. One of the students I talk to who is from a village two hours out of town works at a hotel after school and is given accommodation at the hotel. Afterwards the man leading the session takes some of us and some students for a dinner (he pays for the students, we pay for ourselves) by the Mekong.
DW: The students have very different levels of English. Those who have grown up closer to cities are much more confident and have a better grasp. The two Hmong hill people I spoke to were on scholarships to Luang Prabang from their village. It was unclear how these are funded (generally not by the government). Everyone was curious about scholarships to study in Australia, but I had no useful information unfortunately.
CR: The regular volunteers were as whacky as you’d imagine. One moved semi permanently to Laos after his wife died. One was scammed out of an apartment in Luang Prabang so lived on a boat on the Mekong. Another was going on a date with a local that night and was advised to lock away his credit card – “they look at foreigners and see ATM”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thailand-laos-cambodia-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2742"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2767,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions\/2767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}