Laos

We had arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos from Vietnam, the transfer flight was no issue at all. If anything it was just a day out for Indiana, I think planes and children are often something that terrifies parents but for us it’s an adventure within it’s self. The whole process of sitting around at the airport watching all the planes take off, to boarding the plane, to taking off and landing is all so very exciting for children, not to forget waiting for your bag to come out of the plane, this is surprisingly amusing for toddlers! And if they aren’t bothered by that, they will love the hundreds of trolleys surrounding them that they can be pushed around on!

I have to say being able to breastfeed whilst travelling makes the whole process that much easier. Whenever we have any issues, boob time! This is the one thing that encourages me to continue our journey, because I know my babies need this comfort at these times.

We arrived at our prebooked hotel in Laos, at first glance it looked lovely. Then little things just wasn’t as it said it did when looking at the hotel on the line. But the one reason why we had booked this place was because it had a pool, not many places in Laos had pools. However, the pool was freezing. We were gutted because this hotel was no where near the main town centre, although it did have a transfer bus it just wasn’t ideal. So we actually asked for a refund, which the accepted. We then went off and found another hotel in the town, it was a beautiful b&b styled hotel, a family run type of place. It was just beautiful, the sort of thing the internet can’t sell to you. We much prefer to not prebook but being our first adventure with a baby we thought it was the best thing to do. It certainly wasn’t, we could make a much better judgement as parents to where we were staying by actually seeing the places.

The night we arrived we explored the town, we also went for a walk along the river, where we met a man who did sunset boat tours, it just so happened this particular evening was clear skies. Indiana was super tired by this point but we just figured we’d still do and hope she’d be okay. So we hopped on the boat, Indiana was so fascinated by the boat we were on and the other traffic along the water and finding the fishes in the river she was in her element. When the sun was actually setting she cuddled in to us and watch the sun disappear in the mountains in the distant. It was incredible, these are the moments that we will never forget.

The following day we actually booked on to visit the Elephant camp nearby. To be able to get up close and personal with these amazing animals with Indiana was such an amazing experience. We fed them lots of bananas, learnt lots about them, ate our lunch with the Elephants surrounding us and then went for a short walk on the Elephants where we got to help bath the Elephants in the river. Being able to do this with Indiana is something we will always cherish, and something she still remembers to this day – at 16 months old. Although we don’t agree on using the Elephants as a tourist attraction, we made sure to educate ourselves on why these beautiful animals were here, it’s very popular for locals in Asia to hungry the elephants for their tusks, these Elephants were being protected from being hunted. It’s a very sad situation indeed. On the other hand, being able to educate, and give Indiana this amazing opportunity that one day we can speak about the danger these animals face and who knows, this may well inspire her to do great things. Just down the road from the Elephants we took a long boat to a nearby attraction where we found natural lagoons.

Taking about natural lagoons, hidden deep within the cascades we found one of Laos most amazing attraction, Kuang Si Falls is a three tier waterfall where you are able to swim in each of the tiers. Not a bad place to teach Indiana to swim hey?! It was literally stunning, and a little cold. But when you’re in a place like that it really doesn’t matter!

We didn’t manage to travel to anywhere else in Laos, we did look at other places but it was looking like 16 hour round trip on a bus to get to other spots and we just weren’t in to that. So we spent time in around the town and the river for a few days, I have to say this is one of our favourite places to go as a family. It’s so family oriented, the people were fantastic and the food was beautiful. We were able to sit down by the river on our own, away from any tourists and just chill. Better than any beach. We really did have a lovely time, had we not already booked our flights we could of spent lots of time here.

Oh! And I have to talk a little bit about the people of Laos. They are AMAZING! We made so many friends and was welcomed everywhere we went. It really felt like a home away from home, Indiana met and played with lots of other children whilst here, seeing her enjoy the company of these complete strangers was wonderful. She wasn’t worried about interacting with these people, just inbraced it. They brought us some amazing memories that we can talk with Indiana about forever.

OH! Nearly finished, promise! Before we left we got up at 5am to participate in seeing the monks walk the streets of Laos where are the locals give each of the monks some sticky rice and other treats for their breakfast, part of the ‘Alms giving ceremony’ myself, Stu and Indiana was able to give out the treats too. We are incredibly blessed to be able to experience this. If you ever end up in Laos, make sure you do this!