What are 3 curated travel experiences to kick off 2023? [Part II]

This week, we are continuing our series of 3 curated travel experiences that can transform the start of your 2023. Our first entry shared how three nights in the Brazilian Amazon turned out to be one of the most immersive trip of a lifetime experiences we have been on to date. Let’s now travel 10,760 miles from Brazil to the city of Luang Prabang in Laos, a town built on a peninsula formed by the Mekong and the Nam Khan River.

Upon landing in Luang Prabang International Airport, you feel an air of calmness and tranquility take over. Believe us, you’ll sense the difference right away, especially if you’ve been traveling in other more tourist-heavy countries across Southeast Asia. The town, a peaceful oasis, is encircled by lush greenery thanks to the surrounding mountain ranges. Lonely Planet succinctly summarizes the town’s feel as, “Luang Prabang slows your pulse and awakens your imagination with its combination of world-class comfort and spiritual nourishment.”

For some historical context, Luang Prabang rose to prominence as the capital of the Lao Kingdom between 1353 and 1975. Even during the establishment of the French Protectorate in 1893, the city still maintained its royal status. As you walk down its calm streets, you can appreciate the city’s rich architectural heritage that reflects traditional Lao design with that of the colonial era. It’s a well preserved town that excels in showcasing this fusion and blending of two cultural traditions. Check out this page to learn more about the elements that make Luang Prabang a UNESCO World Heritage Center.

How spending a day on a rice paddy turned out to be a humbling authentic travel experience

As a boutique travel agency, Routeme serves as your personalized travel advisor to truly understand what type of traveler you are at your core. By decoding your Traveler DNA, we are able to get an inside look at how you connect with travel experiences at an emotional level. Once we understand those moments that resonate with you the most, we can curate an authentic and immersive travel experience. Our day at Living Land Farm was without a doubt one of the most enriching experiences we’ve been on this year. It’s a testament to how unique travel experiences, even activities that last only a day, can change your perspective on life. We’d definitely recommend this for a fellow “Immersive Extrovert” or “Hobby Enthusiast”. 

A snapshot from the vast and beautiful Living Land Farm, a truly unique travel experience.

Located only a short ten-minute tuk-tuk ride from the main strip of Luang Prabang, the Living Land Project was formed in 2005 by a group of local families who combined their land into this farm. Today, this community-run organic farm supplies rice, along with fresh vegetables and herbs, to hotels and restaurants across Luang Prabang. The property stretches over 20,000 hectares and follows a combination of traditional wet planting methods with innovative ways of grain selection and planting. The goal is to cultivate the land using practices different to slash-and-burn farming methods, which ultimately result in unusable land. The Farm also acts as a training site for students of the Northern College of Agriculture. 

We participated in their Rice Experience package which offers guests a hands-on way to see the process of planting and harvesting rice in the paddy. Over the course of five hours you are immersed in the process by actually planting the seedlings, ploughing the rice paddy with their buffalo, cutting and bundling the rice, and threshing it, among other steps. Our guide, Bounyang, was extremely friendly, charismatic and did an excellent job explaining all of the steps for rice to go from farm to table. Bounyang has been at Living Land since 2015, and he has also perfected his English during this time, as the farm also serves as a community center for anyone in the vicinity to learn English. 

A curated experience and full immersion of rice cultivation by ploughing the paddy with their friendly water buffalo, Sam.

Part of the experience also includes some bamboo and blacksmith activities that also take place on the Farm. After some hard work out on the paddy field, you are rewarded with the most delicious sugarcane juice you will ever drink and a variety of snacks made out of rice. Some folks on our group had added the option of a full lunch afterwards and although we did not partake in this, the food looked very fresh. 

Assortment of rice snacks to enjoy after our immersive travel experience at Living Land Farm

Like us, we are sure that many of you cannot live without rice. The truth is that before doing this experience, we didn’t know much about the process of cultivating rice. Spending a day on a working paddy field was mind blowing. The harvest and cooking of rice is truly an art that we all take for granted. Not only is it the world’s most important staple food, but it shapes the cultures, diets and economies of millions, if not billions of people. 

At Routeme, our goal is to plan each and every time the trip of a lifetime for you. Kick off 2023 with authentic travel and get started here.