Thai cookery - been there done that? Why not try Lao? Different enough from Thai to feel like a real adventure.
Great Lao guys teaching you to cook Lao food! $25 for the day, go to the market in the morning, cook all day then eat what you've prepared (washed down with a Beer - Lao of course!)

I thought it was one of the best value things we did in Laos. We cooked chicken laap (salad), coconut curry and jeow (chilli jam-paste-type thing) which required 50 chillis for a 2-person serving!
And can absolutely agree with the tip about the Tamarind Cafe. We ate the 'beer snacks' there and came back for more pretty quickly! Carolyn was fantastic and really helped with finding a cookery course. They do pretty advanced stuff at their school (and we are amateurs!) so she recommended Three Elephants.

It's advertised all over the place - you can't miss it. If you do, enquire in the Three Elephants Cafe or Tamarind cafe. Have some beer snacks while you're there!

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Jeow Bong is a smoky chilli and garlic paste traditionally made with buffalo hide. But Tamarind cafe - brilliant place - make a non-meat version which you can bring back to the UK without lawbreaking.

I just wish that I'd carried more jars of it home.

Pork candyfloss sounds vile, but is good. It's actually quite like a fluffy biltong. You can't ship it home so eat up while you're in Laos.

Tamarind will also organise morning trips to the market to look at the amazing variety of fruit and vegetables and also be grossed out by pig skin masks at the butchers.

Carolyn (who jointly runs Tamarind with her boyfriend Joy) is a fount of food knowledge.

Ban Wat Nong, Luang Prabang

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We found it tricky to exchange money whilst we were in Laos (combination of national holidays, weekends and initially staying out of town). So we ended up having no cash. Stupidly we didn't take a lot of dollars with us.

Wish we had: everywhere takes them and it saves queuing in hot banks.

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This is an expensive hotel ($100/night) set up by Thai owners. It is not worth the money.

You are out of town with infrequent bus journeys in and out. They start late so you have to pay extra if you want to see the alms giving or to climb Mount Phousi at dawn.

If you want the map that they show you at check-in you have to pay extra.

The rooms are shabbily furnished and you can hear everything your neighbours are doing.

Service is poor and orientated towards the dozens of Japanese package holidaymakers who dominate the hotel.

While the scenery is absolutely magnificent, there is nothing to do, no gym, no pool. (I think generally Lao are against swimming, so this is probably not surprising.)

The walk into town is over an hour along a main road and not very nice.

We left after a night and regretted spending that long.

www.grandluangprabang.com/
but really, don't bother

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