Luang Prabang, the monks, the waterfall & the cooking class

After only 3-4 hours of sleep, our last day in Luang Prabang began. At exactly 5:40 am, the monks pass through the streets here and collect offerings of food (mainly sticky rice) from the believers sitting on the ground. Since Buddhist monks are not allowed to possess any belongings, they rely on the offerings of the residents to simply not starve. For the believers, it brings good karma and helps them reach a higher level in the next life. We didn't want to miss this spectacle! Unfortunately, this ritual has now become so well known that tourists also sit among the believers and give sticky rice to the monks. A veritable industry has already developed around this. On the main street, you can buy sticky rice in portions the size of monks, so that every clumsy tourist can participate in the 'monk feeding' 🙊. To not scare off tourists, the sticky rice vendors have even set up plastic stool tribunes so that the tourists don't have to sit on the ground. The density of cameras created by this is visibly uncomfortable for the monks, but due to their peacefulness, they try to show as little as possible. However, after the main street, the large group of monks splits into smaller groups and moves through the still dark side streets, where the actually beautiful ritual regains its originality 😊.

Since we were already up so early, the next stop was the morning market. In contrast to the night market, all kinds of fresh products grown by the locals are offered for sale here. Including a lot of fruit, spices and vegetables, as well as fish and meat. Here you can actually see the individual farmer woman offering her goods on a wool blanket with her 12 tomatoes, 10 duck eggs, and a handful of chilies. Even live animals, such as chickens, are packed in plastic bags after a thorough inspection and transported with only a hole for their little heads 🐓. What is (still) alive does not spoil so quickly. The morning hustle and bustle at sunrise with its various smells, steam from breakfast soups, freshly grilled and baked goods, gives this morning market a special flair 🌄.

Impressed by all of this, we then hopped on the scooter we rented the day before and set off for the waterfalls - Kuang Si - which were touted as the 'most beautiful in the world'. And what can we say? They're probably right!

But first, let's talk about the journey: If you don't want to look like a complete idiot in front of your scooter, you should listen carefully to the lessor's instruction on how to open and start the thing 🙈. Well, next time you'll be smarter. At least this way you can get in touch with the locals, who were immediately helpful in their friendly manner. The next task was refueling, as we had a good hour-long drive to the waterfall ahead of us. After passing by the gas station, our offline map app 'maps.me' guided us back the 1.5km (Backpack-Hack #3). Since the road to the waterfall - based on our experience - is one of the few properly asphalted roads in Laos (with the exception of a few potholes the size of a human), the rest of the journey was no big problem.

The Kuang Si waterfall is truly stunning and with its location in the middle of the jungle, it looks like a relic from Indiana Jones 🤩. The waterfall consists of countless smaller and larger stages, and after each stage, there are turquoise pools washed out, most of which you can swim in 🏞️. This cooling off was very welcome after the steep trek to the source of the waterfall! However, if someone suffers from arachnophobia, they should be cautious here. The sometimes larger-than-hand-sized yellow-black spiders 🕷️ hang inconspicuously from the lianas of the trees in quite a few places. From a few tourists, you could hear a slight scream 😂. In general, it is highly recommended to be here as early as we were, as larger groups of tourists are led here from around 10:00 am. On the other hand, we had the waterfall almost to ourselves for the first hour.

An unobtrusive and almost fearful dog even led us up the approximately 30-minute climb to the source.

After freshening up, we were picked up by a young man for our private Laotian cooking class, which turned out to be very private. First, he took us to the local Phou-Sy market to buy some ingredients. He explained a lot to us and let us taste some spices and fruits. Our main course was to be fish 🐟. So we chose one of the numerous fish on-site, which was then killed and gutted right in front of us😏.

After we had bought everything, we continued to his house, where his girlfriend was already waiting for us. Since the two of them wanted to introduce us not only to local dishes but also to traditional cooking, we first lit two firepots in the garden 🔥. Later on, we sat on small stools in front of them to prepare our meals. There was a bamboo soup, a raw fish salad, eggplant dip, fish steamed in banana leaves, and of course sticky rice. However, we had to spend almost 2 hours cutting, chopping, kneading juice from leaves into the soup, and grinding first. To lighten the mood, a Laotian snack was prepared and served. This consisted of leaves of young banana hearts filled with salt, chili, galangal, sugar, and lime. The taste was so intense that it twisted your entire face 😖. It was sweet, sour, salty, bitter, starchy, and spicy all at once, but to the limit. When we were finally finished cooking, we ate everything together traditonally with our fingers. Despite the spiciness (for Nathalie), it was an absolutely recommendable experience with very nice hosts. It will definitely be remembered by us, and Christian with his drone as well by the two and the villagers. 😉