Garden of Eden Luang Pra Bang — Local services in Luang Prabang

Absolutely outstanding experience, highlight of my time in Laos. I took the silver workshop and spent 5 hours making a ring and a necklace, with neverending help and patience from the lovely staff.

Ping's English was amazing and she was so friendly and knowledgeable, while the boys (William and Bey, I think) were working super diligently and keeping an eye on every step. No question or suggestion or revision of mine was too much, and I felt like in the end the family/crew was truly happy together with me when I finished the necklace. They even put together a stainless steel chain for me to wear it immediately after although they were eating dinner and I had already tipped and was ready to go. Feels like they truly care, and while my boyfriend waited the last hour, he got treated with fresh mixed fruit and snacks as did I when I waited for the final cleaning step to finish. I am so so stoked with my piece and this experience, would give 10 stars if I could.

If I could suggest one thing, I recommend asking about and seeing the possibilities (e.g. etching, texturising to a hammered surface, oxidising etc.) beforehand so you know your options :) Be aware the silver is 99%, so it's bendier than your standard 92,5% sterling, so very thin rings might bend out of shape more easily Use the loca app to get a cheap cab to Garden of Eden as the bamboo bridge is no longer there And come early if you suspect you might enjoy it as much as I did, because you won't...

I booked the silver workshop at Garden of Eden after seeing so many amazing reviews, but unfortunately my experience was quite uncomfortable. I paid for the 10g workshop and was told I could make two rings, but after finishing the first one I told them I didn’t want to proceed with the second as I just felt like leaving. The guys running the workshop were quite rude and didn’t really help much – they mostly gave one-word instructions and seemed totally disinterested in the whole process. I understand that they didn’t have good English, but their attitude made for a less than satisfying experience overall. I also felt uncomfortable as there were often multiple guys just standing around very close to me while I was working, which felt a bit intimidating. At one point, one of them was smoking right beside me and some ash even went in my eye, which was really unpleasant. They really made no effort to make it a nice experience for us.

However, I will say that the girls in the shop were absolutely lovely. They provided a beautiful fruit platter and made sure we had enough water and were cool enough throughout the workshop, which I really appreciated.

For the price we paid, I definitely didn’t think it was worth it and would have rather just spent the money on a nice ring instead of bothering with the class. Overall, I left feeling disappointed and uneasy, which was a shame because I had been really looking forward to...

Accidentally booked the beginner class, but wasn’t so fussed. This includes just making some jewellery with beads that we chose. The girls ‘teaching’ this class didn’t speak a word of English, which at first wasn’t a problem. But you could tell they were discussing amongst themselves about us, it felt like a very judgemental environment. We chose the most simple design of bracelet, just a beaded one, pretty straightforward, so no teaching was necessary, when they finished it off for us they didn’t even show us what they were doing. The first time round the lady dropped the bracelet and the beads went everywhere and had to start again. When paying for this they tried to charge us an extra “class” which was only $1.80 but we didn’t actually learn anything. I had made two tiny beaded bracelets and my partner made another , they tried to charge us almost 500000 when we weren’t even there 45mins. Until they called over the guy that spoke a little more English and he just cut the price in half. Waa the weirdest experience, much more care and love was put into the silver making, which isn’t right when we’re both paying to be there. I hope that they can make it a better environment for the beginner...