Luang Prabang Bolaven Plateau Tour 8 Days: Nature and Heritage

On arrival at the Luang Prabang airport, you will be warmly welcome and  transferred to hotel by private car.
Check in the hotel and have a rest.

In the late afternoon, we will get an oppotunity to join a private Baci ceremony at a local family. The Baci ceremony is a traditional ritual of the Lao people expresses the spirituality of the country and is a highly unforgettable experience and a deep insight into Lao culture for the participants.
 
You will be served dinner and share with family members which helps us have first-hand experience of local life and culture.
Overnight at the hotel in Luang Prabang.

After breakfast, our guide will pick up you from hotel and begin our trip to day with the first destination is Royal Palace Museum where people kept a range of amazing artifacts. Our next stop in the city is the impresive  Wat Xiengthong with its roofs sweeping low to the ground, which shows classical Laotian architecture. We will also catch a sight of the Traditional Art & Ethnology Center to study the many Lao ethnic groups.

We then take a local boat on Mekong river in 2 hours to reach the best famous and spiritual Pak Ou Buddha Caves, where we could have a look at confluence of the Mekong & Ou Rivers. Since the 16 century, the villagers built many thousands of Buddha images here.
 
On the way , we’ll make a stop  at Ban Muang Keo, a famous village for its traditional Lao rice whisky prodution. You will return back to the capital in the late afternoon and continue by road transfer to the outskirts of town to visit Ban Xangkhong, a village well-known for its wood paper making and also Lao silk weavings with natural dyes.
 
Overnight in Luang Prabang.

06:00AM Wake up as the sun rises, we will prepare to join the most sacred tradition of Laos, the daily morning alms giving, which dates to the 14th century. More than 200 Buddhist monks depart from various temple to gather their daily meal from the faithful residents sitting quietly on the streets.

From there, we will visit the temporary morning market near the former Royal Palace. Just set on the ground, the local people come here to barter their day’s catch from rice, to vegetable, to fish, or chicken. This is the best chance to experience the flavor of local life.

After breakfast, we make a stop at Wat Visoun being built in 1513 during the reign of King Wisunarat (Visoun) which is considered as a  Luang Prabang’s oldest temple and was once home to the Prabang Buddhas.
 
Laos is also well-known for its traditional crafts, we will move on to the Ock Pop Tock Living Craft Center, where you will be provide with full information about Silk , about weaver, about the Women working in the Centre by a short tour. This then takes us to  reach one of the most beautiful Kuang Si Falls situated 30 kilometers of Southern Luang Prabang. The Kuang Si Waterfall consists of a tiered many of turquoise pools put amongst the dense Laotian jungle where we will have plenty of time to refreshing swim in the pools and hike around the falls.
 
You can also have a closer look at  Asiatic bears at the Bear Rescue Centre along the jungle walk to the waterfall.
 
Before returning to Luang Prabang, we will visit  Kuang Si Falls Butterfly Park, one of the must-visit spots, a project that was newly opened on January 2014 studying about Laos butterflies, host plants and preservation.
 
Arriving in Luang Prabang, we will climb the 329 steps to the top of Phousi Hill for a stunning sunset view of the city and its brightly shining reflection on the majestic Mekong River.
 
Overnight in Luang Prabang.

After breakfast, you have free time before transferring to airport to take the flight to Pakse.

Upon arrival at the airport, our guide and driver will pick up you and drive direcly to  Pakse and onto the Bolaven Plateau.
The first stop is the visit of Tad Lo waterfalls, a beautiful formation of three separate falls. From the bridge, you will first see Tad Hang and then Tad Lo in the distance. The most impressive of the three, Tad Suong, is located a further 10km upriver.
From there, we will drive to the small village of Ban Houay Houn, famous for its Katu textiles. Here, you will have the chance to observe the women weaving without a traditional loom but using their legs to stretch the fabric.
We continue our journey through the Paksong and Boloven Plateau. The Boloven Plateau is known for its cooler temperature being located high above the Mekong Valley. Rivers run off this high plateau in all directions and then plunge out to lush forests along in a series of spectacular surging waterfalls.

Overnight at Bolaven Plateau.

09:00AM, we will transfer you to Ban Lao Ngam, where we will meet the Jeep tour specialist.

After a short briefing, we will drive to Suay village, where we can find many traditional long house made by bamboo, which is shared by some generations of 01 family.

We then continue driving to Laven village to see their daily life and their paddy field. This is the first minority group found in Bolaven Plateau.

11:00 AM, we continue driving to the Coffee Farm of Mr. Khamsone via the 10KM bumpy and muddy road, which will take you 01 hour with your special Jeep car.
Upon arrival, Mr khamsone, the Coffee farm’s owner will take 1 hour to demonstrate about coffee roasting step and finishing by a coffee cupping to Savor the different kind of coffee (Robusta, Arabica and Typica). 

After that, we will hop on the Jeep and drive 30 minutes to Tad Moun waterfalls, where we can enjoy the fresh cool water, and visit the nearby vegetable farm.
Finally, we will drive to Paksong, where our van will pick us up and transfer to the hotel.

Overnight in Paksong

After breakfast, we departure for Champasak. Along the way, we will have chance to enjoy the scenery around Tad Fan waterfall, which is spectacular with twin waterfalls plummeting into a deep gorge surrounded by flourishing vegetation. We will also visit the nearby Tad Yeang waterfalls, and take a refreshing dip if you wish so.

Arriving in Champasak, visit Wat Phou, an ancient Khmer religious complex dating back to the 5th Century.
Recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, Wat Phou is a spectacular pre-Angkorian temple of Laos. It was constructed during the rule of the Khmer empire before the construction of Angkor Wat. The temple served as the most important economic and political centre of the region and still is one of the Lao people’s most revered temples.

After your visit, we continue in to Champasak to see samples of French colonial architecture before transferring to your hotel in town to spend the night.

Heading out of town we transfer further to Khong island, and embark on a long tail boat for venturing into the widest reach of the Mekong River, where during the dry season the waters recede and leave behind thousands of islets, giving this area a lovely name” Si Phan Done”.

Upon arrival, explore the local peaceful villages of Ban Khone, where you will see an array of relics from the French colonial era and retrace the old colonial past, including old French colonial buildings and the remnants of the first Lao railway with its locomotive. We continue to discover the 4000 islands area by tuktuk and visit the marvelous Liphi waterfall, also called the "Corridor of the Devil" one of the most beautiful waterfalls marking Lao border with Cambodia. If we are lucky, we may even see the rare freshwater Irrawaddy Mekong dolphin at Ban Hang Khone.

Free for the rest of the day to stroll around the island. We recommend you rent a bike and explore the island by yourself.

Overnight in Khone island

In the morning, we will take a long-tail boat to Ban Nakasang; from there, we drive south to visit Khone Phapheng, which is considered the largest waterfall by volume in South East Asia; this is an impressive spot near the Lao-Cambodian border, set within an area which is teeming with wildlife, making this area one of the most breathtaking destinations in Laos. Then we will return to Pakse.

We then transfer to airport to take the departure flight. End of Services