Ordering a meal to share: clearer questions about ingredients and portions
Use a few focused questions to understand a dish, judge the first order, and agree how your table will share the meal.
THE LAOS JOURNAL
Food & drink
Fresh perspectives, useful guides, and places to linger.
Vientiane temples: a route through different kinds of sacred space
Vientiane's Buddhist sites are most rewarding when their differences guide the itinerary. A major national stupa, a temple courtyard filled with Buddha images, a museum collection and a working monastery each ask for a different kind of attention.…
Phongsaly through its tea gardens and mountain food
Tea provides a distinctive way into Phongsaly, the mountainous province at the northern end of Laos. Around the provincial town, tea-growing landscapes connect cultivation, village knowledge and the everyday act of preparing a drink. Travellers…
TAEC: a thoughtful introduction to the cultures of Laos
The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre in Luang Prabang is a useful place to begin asking better questions about Laos. Its museum, learning activities and work with artisans focus on the country's varied ethnic cultures. A visit can provide…
Ock Pop Tok: understanding a Lao textile before buying one
A finished Lao textile can hold far more work than its size suggests. At Ock Pop Tok's Living Crafts Centre in Luang Prabang, the useful starting point is the making: fibre preparation, dyeing, pattern setting and weaving. Seeing those stages…
Vieng Xai caves: give the history time to unfold
Vieng Xai offers a different kind of cave visit from the river passages and rock formations found elsewhere in Laos. In Houaphanh Province, the caves are closely connected with the conflict of the 1960s and 1970s, when underground spaces sheltered…
The Plain of Jars: visiting an archaeological landscape
The Plain of Jars is best approached as a landscape of archaeological sites, with Phonsavan as a practical base for exploration. Large stone vessels stand in groups across the Xieng Khouang plateau and its surrounding slopes. The impression can be…
Vat Phou: reading the landscape from reservoir to sanctuary
At Vat Phou, the approach is part of the monument. Reservoirs, walkways, terraces and the mountain setting prepare the visitor for the sanctuary above. In southern Laos' Champasak landscape, the site becomes easier to understand when you follow this…