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Wanderlust Travel Awards 2010 Top City
By Wanderlust team
Discover which city scooped top prize in this year's awards

Top city: Luang Prabang, Laos

Ranking %

1 Luang Prabang, Laos 94.74

2 Siena, Italy 94.67

3 Berlin, Germany 94.15

4 Seville, Spain 94.00

5 Kyoto, Japan 93.33

6 Melbourne, Australia 92.22

7 Boston, USA 91.85

8 Krakow, Poland 90.91

9 San Francisco, USA 90.53

10 Tallinn, Estonia 90.40


Right at home:

“Luang Prabang is one of those rare traveller towns where as soon as you arrive you feel right at home,” wrote reader Lucy Palmer of your perennial favourite city.


“Maybe it’s the languid pace of life instilled by the monks, maybe it’s just being in the shadow of those majestic temples; maybe it’s the presence of the mighty Mekong – but the whole place makes you slow down, forget any stress and just appreciate the environment around you. Yes, there are things to see and do, but that’s not the point. Luang Prabang is simply a great place to be.”



Despite its growing popularity, you told us the town retains those things that make it special: its colourful markets, French cuisine, outbreaks of drumming by the resident monks. And you recalled great local excursions – learning to be a mahout at an elephant centre (www.laos-adventures.com), gold-panning at a jungle ecolodge (www.kamulodge.com) and taking a boat trip to the Kuang Si waterfalls.


Even the frequent power cuts and lack of ATMs, concluded reader Charlotte West, “just seem to add to the charm of this one-of-a-kind place.”


Get there fast – then slow right down.


>>See the rest of Wanderlust Travel Awards 2010 winners here

If you’ve got never traveled to a developing country, Laos would certainly provide you a unique expertise and most likely additional than simply one. With its previous colonial charm and vast rural areas, if you like the outside or just need to relax Laos has masses to offer. When visiting Laos you’ll have to purchase Laos currency that is known as Kip and here are some benefits and disadvantages of using Kip.

Volume: Laos Tour widely accepts US bucks but on arrival in the country you may probably exchange your Greenbacks to the native currency called Kip, attempt not to change all your money to Kip as you may be in for a surprise and in all probability additional cash than you’ll carry. A definite annoyance is that the sheer volume of money; you’ll notice this as a tourist changing $100 US at a time however when buying a bike or different large items, locals typically would like a carrier bag or even a suitcase filled with it. This brings in another drawback counting your money takes a while.

Millionaires: I assume this might be seen as a bonus as when you change your money in Laos you have got become a rapid millionaire. You’ve got reached celebrity standing in some countries but not in Laos as most people are millionaires here. When exchanging money the most effective approach to try to to this can be amendment a little at a time, this will give you sufficient native currency to acquire little items like food, drinks, entrance fees and tipping at hotels. It’s not advisable to vary massive sums as you may have to hold it around with you all day and it will probably not all work in your wallet.

Paper Currency: This is a fairly cool advantage they are no coins, which is nice, no coins to lose or hear jingling in your pocket as you run for the bus. On the opposite hand there’s plenty of paper with the most important note being equivalent to merely 5 US Bucks

Tiny amendment: Have you ever ever had the matter that you wish to buy something tiny however do not seem to have any change. This downside does not ever seem to happen in Tour of Laos with the most important note hardly price that a lot of, it’s made buying tiny things from markets extraordinarily easy.

Colors Co-Ordination: Individual notes are all totally different colours and straightforward to tell apart, which could be a definite advantage over the US currency and conjointly a lot of original with the US bills all being the identical color and size.

Closed Country: Laos Tours is officially a closed country which means any left over Kip you have got at the end of your trip ought to not very be taken out of the country all nobody will build a fuss, if you did take money out of Laos there would be no use for it as no one would accept a comprehensible difficulty. When changing cash in Laos; keep the exchange receipt that you just obtained from the bank, this makes it easy to change back your unused local currency to $US Bucks while not the receipt the bank will not comply with the exchange. If this fails attempt a native restaurant or search to see if they will exchange it for you, albeit at a reduced exchange rate.

The last option is to stay it for different uses like whereas camping you perhaps cold, it might come in handy when beginning a fire or if times are desperate it makes smart rest room paper.

Source: http://articlicious.com

Xieng Khuang provincial authorities are hoping to open the door to the province's tourist attractions with two important new keys.

The first is the promotion of the Plain of Jars as a World Heritage Site in 2010 and the second is the construction of an international airport.

Xieng Khuang provincial Tourism Department Director, Mr Khamphet Phommadouangkaison, said “Our province has two big keys to open the door of worldwide tourism promotion.”

“Our vision for the development of our tourist attractions is to make changes in a logical way and follow the slogan ‘a smoke-free tourist industry',” he added.

“The province ranks tourism as second in importance to livestock rearing in its development master plan.”



“At present we are working on documents relating to the Plain of Jars which we will send to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). We hope to have finished all the documents soon and they should be approved by UNESCO by 2010,” Mr Khamphet said.

“We plan to upgrade the provincial airport to an international airport in the near future. The project is now under discussion and we will send a project proposal to the government.”

Another of the province's plans is to develop the 750ha hill on Koud Mountain in Phoukoud district into a new tourist attraction, with a possible opening in 2009.

The Acting Governor of Xieng Khuang province, Mr Viengthanom Phommachanh, said last week the airport expansion would be financed by a loan from a neighbouring country worth about US$50 million.

He said this development would start in the near future because it was very important in bringing more tourists to the province.

“If we have better transport facilities we will get more tourists here. Most of them want to make short trips to local areas of interest so they have more time to spend at the site they visit,” Mr Viengthanom said.

According to a report from the Xieng Khuang provincial Tourism Department, there are actually 1,900 jars scattered over 52 sites, but only three sites are open to the public - two in Kham district and another in Khoun district.

The province has 14 hotels and more than 40 guesthouses.

Most visitors to the province come from Europe, with the rest coming mostly from Japan , China , Vietnam and Thailand .

By Sisay Vilaysack
Vientianetimes