10 Best Sights in Luang Prabang, Laos

Opened by a group of expats who complained that the cost of cheese in Luang Prabang was too high, this full-fledged water buffalo farm started as a social enterprise and also now welcomes visitors. Laos Buffalo Dairy helps local farmers by renting their pregnant buffaloes, taking care of them, and returning them healthier to their owners, who are also welcome to join a series of practical workshops. Guests can try their hand at farming and milk-making activities while learning about the challenges that local farmers face every day. Make sure to taste the delicious ricotta, feta cheeses, and cheesecakes on offer. Admission includes a cake of the day and tea.

The night market is a hub of activity---full of colorful local souvenirs and cheap, delicious food---and also a meeting place for locals and tourists. Starting in the late afternoon, Sisavangvong Road is closed to vehicles from the tourist office down to the Royal Palace, and a tented area is set up, thronged with vendors selling lanterns, patterned cushion covers, Lao coffee and tea, hand-stitched bags, and many other local crafts. Side streets are lined with food stalls selling everything from fried chicken to Mekong seaweed and other treats at a fraction of the price you'll pay in a restaurant. It's worth strolling the market just for the atmosphere.

Luang Prabang's most important and impressive temple complex is Wat Xieng Thong, a collection of ancient buildings near the tip of the peninsula where the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers meet. Erected in 1560, the main temple is one of the few structures to have survived centuries of marauding Vietnamese, Chinese, and Siamese armies, and it's one of the region's best-preserved examples of Buddhist art and architecture. The intricate golden facades, colorful murals, sparkling glass mosaics, and low, sweeping roofs of the entire ensemble of buildings (which overlap to make complex patterns) all combine to create a feeling of harmony and peace.

The interior of the main temple has decorated wooden columns and a ceiling covered with wheels of dharma, representing the Buddha's teaching. The exterior is just as impressive thanks to mosaics of colored glass that were added in the 1950s. Several small chapels at the sides of the main hall are also covered with mosaics and contain various images of the Buddha. The bronze 16th-century reclining Buddha in one chapel was displayed in the 1931 Paris Exhibition. The mosaic on the back wall of that chapel commemorates the 2,500th anniversary of the Lord Buddha's birth with a depiction of Lao village life. The funerary carriage house near the compound's east gate, with a gilded facade, contains the royal family's funeral statuary and urns, including a 40-foot-long wooden funeral carriage.

From 7 am until 10 pm, patrons of this bookstore and hangout sip tea, coffee, and smoothies or nibble on snacks while reclining on comfortable and chic floor pillows. In the evening, the place fills up for DVD screenings.

Set on 40 hectares of land on the opposite side of the Mekong, a 15-minute boat ride south of town, the centerpiece of these botanical gardens is the ethno-botanic garden, where Laos's flora and its uses in daily life, rituals, and cuisine are richly explained. Gravel pathways bring visitors through an arboretum, a limestone habitat, and a ginger garden. This green oasis also has a restaurant/café, a plant retail store, and a souvenir shop. A dedicated jetty near Wat Mahathat has hourly departures to and from the gardens until 4 pm.

Several shrines and temples and a golden stupa crown this forested hill, but the best reason to ascend its 328 steps is to enjoy the view from the summit: a panorama of Luang Prabang, the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers, and the surrounding mountains. It's a popular spot for watching the sunset (bring insect repellent), but there are huge crowds (watch for pickpockets), so the view here might be better appreciated at sunrise, when you will have it all to yourself. If you're not game for the steep climb up the staircase, there's a less strenuous hike up the trail on the "back" side of the hill behind the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre; there aren't really views on the way up but the view from the top is the same.

In a walled compound at the foot of Phou Si Hill stands this palace, the former home of the royal family. Built by the French at the beginning of the 20th century, the palace served as the royal residence until the Pathet Lao took over Laos in 1975 and exiled King Savang Vatthana, Queen Khamphoui, and Crown Prince Vong Savang to a remote region of the country (their fate has never been fully confirmed). It still has the feel of a large family home—a maze of teak-floor rooms surprisingly modest in scale. The largest of them is the Throne Room, with its gilded furniture, colorful mosaic-covered walls, and display cases filled with rare Buddha images, royal regalia, and other priceless artifacts.

The walls of the King's Reception Room are decorated with scenes of traditional Lao life painted in 1930 by the French artist Alix de Fautereau. The Queen's Reception Room contains a collection of royal portraits by the Russian artist Ilya Glazunov. The room also has cabinets full of presents given to the royal couple by visiting heads of state; a model moon lander and a piece of moon rock from U.S. president Richard Nixon share shelf space with an exquisite Sèvres tea set presented by French president Charles de Gaulle and fine porcelain teacups from Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung. Other exhibits in this eclectic collection include friezes removed from local temples, Khmer drums, and elephant tusks with carved images of the Buddha.

The museum's most prized exhibit is the Prabang, a gold image of the Buddha slightly less than 3 feet tall and weighing more than 100 pounds. Its history goes back to the 1st century when it was cast in Sri Lanka; it was brought to Luang Prabang from Cambodia in 1359 as a gift to King Fa Ngum. This event is celebrated as the introduction of Buddhism as an official religion to Laos, and the Prabang is venerated as the protector of the faith and the most important Buddha image in the country. An ornate temple called Haw Prabang, near the entrance to the palace compound, has been constructed to house the image.

Tucked away behind the palace is a crumbling wooden garage that houses the aging royal fleet of automobiles, including an Edsel. You'll need about two hours to work through the Royal Palace's maze of rooms.

Eclipsed by Luang Prabang's night market and these days less tribally oriented than its name might suggest, this covered market has piles of produce and household goods, including textiles and many Chinese-made items.

This small but lovely temple next to the Royal Palace compound dates from 1796. Its sweeping four-tier roof is characteristic of Luang Prabang's religious architecture, but more impressive are the magnificent wood carvings and gold-leaf murals on the main pillars and portico entrance to the temple. These intricate panels depict the last life of the Buddha, as well as various Asian animals. During the Boun Pimai festival (Lao New Year), the Phra Bang sacred Buddha image is carried from the Royal Palace compound to Wat Mai for ritual cleansing ceremonies.

The 16th-century Wat Visoun and neighboring Wat Aham play a central role in Lao New Year celebrations, when ancestral deities, called Pou Nyeu Nya Nyeu emerge from Wat Aham and dance in the processions down Sisavangvong Rd. Wat Visoun was built in 1503, during the reign of King Visounarat, who had the temple named after himself. Within the compound is a large and unusual watermelon-shaped stupa called That Makmo (literally "Watermelon Stupa"). The 100-foot-high mound is actually a royal tomb, where many small, precious Buddha statues were found when Chinese Haw marauders destroyed the city in the late 19th century (these statues have since been moved to the Royal Palace). The temple hall was rebuilt in 1898 along the lines of the original wooden structure, and now houses an impressive collection of Buddha statues, stone inscriptions, and other Buddhist art.