Luang Prabang, Laos

If you love all things French and Asia, then Luang Prabang is a great destination for you!

The best part about this town is that it's relatively "small" so you can just about walk to every single temple, tourist site, restaurant, museum, market, etc.

Definitely, the highlight is the 6.30am monks alms giving every morning.

I loved this for all three mornings we were there!

The problem with traveling there, is that there are no direct flights

from Singapore to Luang Prabang.

I think there are some very $$ options but still not direct.

The least expensive way I learned from my friend Geri.

You Jetstar to Bangkok, overnight and catch a Bangkok Airways

flight the next morning.  

I did learn from a Filipino waiter in LP that it's even

less expensive to reach LP via Vientiane on the local airlines.

There are tons of hotel options at or near the Bangkok Airport.

We always stay at the Premier Amarath

Suvarnabhumi Airport b/c it's convenient.

For Luang Prabang, I spent quite a bit of time reading trip 

adviser and decided on this boutique hotel:

Belle Rive

www.thebellerive.com

We loved the perfect location - close to everything but quiet and along

the Mekong River.  Breakfast was so peaceful overlooking the water.

Here's a photo of our bathroom sink - isn't it pretty?

I loved the local breakfast option at the hotel.

I tried a couple of massage places close to our hotel.

For a very LOCAL experience (basic) try

PENINSULA

Close to Xieng Thong Temple

Tel (020) 5675 282

Food was fantastic!

I thought it was really cool to see French baguette sandwiches

everywhere, and crepes stalls too.

We found this great French cafe with the BEST coconut

ice-cream I have ever eaten.  Not typical coconut

b/c it's made with YOUNG coconut.

Le Cafe Ban Vat Sene

Sakkarine Road, Ban Vat Sene, LP

Tel (71) 252 482

Another terrific French restaurant is l'Elephant

We loved it so much (see magret de canard - duck - photo below)

we ate there three times!

http://www.elephant-restau.com/

One last note, we did enjoy a day trip by car in the countryside to see

more temples.  The highlight was going to a local HMONG village

about 45 minutes outside of LP.  The kids seemed delighted

to meet foreigners.

SRI LANKA

We highly recommend this company if you need help organizing your trip.

We usually like to make our own arrangements but our friends recommended

Sri Lanka Tours so we used them to just book our hotels and organize driver/car.

SRI LANKA TOURS

Anil Pathmaperuma

www.srilankatours.webs.com

srilankatours@ymail.com

Anil was great at answering questions I had regarding

visas, money, weather etc.

It is very easy to get a visa online before your trip.

Electronic Travel Authorization.

 (http://www.eta.gov.lk/ (USD 20) per person.

We rented a large van for our group and kids loved

that there was a DVD player.  We felt like our

driver DUSHARA really made the trip special/enjoyable,

he was professional and was so nice to our family.

In Kandy, we stayed in Serene Grand Hotel.

This is NOT a fancy hotel, but we loved the location and view

of looking down on Kandy.  Staff were lovely!

SERENE GRAND

No. 113 Rajapiihilla Mawatha, Kandy

Tel 94 2205369

On the way to Kandy, we stopped at the 

Pinnawella Elephant Sanctuary. 

Despite it being WAY too touristy, it was

still a great experience to see all the elephants.

We spent four days in Kandy (three hour drive from airport) and we were busy every day.

Our favorite temple was the Tooth Temple in Kandy because

there were so many rooms to visit and various styles of architecture.

The grounds are lovely too.

 Another tacky tourist stop was the evening dance and fireshow.

Of all the dance shows we have seen around Asia, this one is by far much better because the dances were interesting and the whole program was only one hour, so totally kid-friendly.

Kandy is still two hours away from the "historical triangle" where a lot of the major religious and historical sites of Sri Lanka were found.  We thought the hike up Sigiriya Rock was pretty awesome.  It has amazing palace and fort ruins on the grounds and on top.  It's 300 meters high, and I think it would take only 30 minutes to walk up if you had big kids, but it took us an hour b/c we had to carry little ones and there was rain and winds which added to the excitement.  On the same day trip we also saw the famous Dambullah Caves which we thought were worth a stop. 

After Kandy, we stayed at the beach for three nights.  We stayed at Jetwing Beach Hotel in Negombo.  It was a lovely resort, but I wouldn't recommend it because of location.  We chose Negombo because it is close to Colombo and we did not want to have too many hours in the car.  If you have done many Asia beach destinations, then the Negombo beaches are nothing special.  If we were to do it again, we would take the extra hours in the car (1.5 hours south of Colombo) to the Galle area where the beaches are supposedly more beautiful.  I noticed that the Jetwing Hotels have many locations around Sri Lanka so I'd definitely stay in their chain again.  

I think if I had more time, and if I had known that the kids would do so well traveling, I would DEFINITELY make a stop to the tea country of NUWARA ELIYA.  Friends who have traveled here say it is beautiful.  I'd like to return and see the stunning views of Ella Gap.