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Published: December 6th 2007
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Boy monk
En route to the monastery. The town of Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage site and everyone goes there.
I took an ordinary bus from Vientiane, not one of those tourist buses I had seen outside the guesthouse every morning but was surprised to see were more than a few white faces onboard. The bus broke down halfway in Vang Vieng, a backpacker destination where western ‘kids’ flock to party on the cheap and go tubing down the river. Where there are cafés playing
Friends non-stop everyday and comfortable places to nap - not a very cultural destination.
Five hours we waited for a substitute bus, sitting on the roadside, on the grass and in the shade of some trees. We were a diverse bunch. I chatted with an unusual, past middle-aged, Malaysian-Chinese lady. She was a divorcee, alone and new to independent travel; most of her peers would be package tourists. Betraying her lacking confidence, she would regularly reassure herself with statements like ‘this is so different’ and ‘I like travelling like this.’ To her credit, she had a suitcase and not a backpack. Why do backpackers carry backpacks when they mostly use tuk-tuks and taxis and wouldn’t walk more than 100 metres
Luang Prabang at night
I think the hammer and sickle flag is there to entertain the tourists. with their oversize packs?
Finally, 'King of Bus' arrived late in the afternoon and transported us late into the night, watching Thai Karaoke videos and sleeping on and off. There was a toilet downstairs that occasionally released rich odours of urine and shit. We stopped in a small town for dinner; I bought a piece of meat, sticky rice, and a Beer Lao.
The bus reached Luang Prabang around midnight. A shared tuk-tuk into town with some other tourists (it’s more than a few kilometres) and there we were, wandering empty streets lined by sleeping guesthouses and restaurants. One of the last, I found a place with the door unlocked and woke up the watchman. Stepping over the two girls sleeping on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, he showed me to a small and stuffy four dollar room.
I spent only one day in Luang Prabang. It seems like more than one day and I remember seeing a lot and taking many photos. The town was nice but I found it a bit over touristed and this was low season! It’s all low-key and looks original but I was not visiting for the tourists,
While you were sleeping
Morning market, Luang Prabang. boutique hotels and tour offices. Early in the morning is the best time of the day to explore the place, when most of us are still in bed or not finished breakfast. With the monks doing their rounds and when the morning market is busy. The evening market sells tourist stuff.
Nothing to do in the afternoon, I visited the Palace Museum, formerly the King’s residence; the obvious thing to do. The entrance fee was 30,000 kip (a bit over 3 dollars) and you have to remove your shoes and leave you camera. The most interesting thing apart from the building itself was the display of gifts. Here there were gifts from such notables as Harold Holt (Prime Minister of Australia, 1967), John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1963) and Richard Nixon. The Americans had presented the king a model of the Lunar Lander together with a sample of moon dirt and a Laos flag that had been into outer space.
Exiting the gift room I was amused by a most comical site. In the centre of the protocol room there stood a reverend-looking gentleman, barefoot with ¾ length trousers, short-sleeved light cotton shirt and spectacles, thinning hair. Tall and solemn,
Selling all tourist stuff
Evening market, Luang Prabang. he was reading from a book held in front of him at chest height, cradled in two hands: it was the Fucking Lonely Planet (FLP), don’t walk outside your hotel without one!
Guide books today live up to their name with step-by-step directions and interpretative information for self-guided tours. Well, Lonely Planet is market-driven and there are a majority of unadventurous tourists buying their books today.
In the evening I joined a crowd of tourists on top of Phu Si hill to watch the sunset, again visiting the obvious attractions. It cost 20,000 kip (circa 2 dollars) to go up there. Big cameras are fashionable these days and there were several digital SLRs on the hill that day; it makes you look like a pro. Most of these SLR users are not enthusiasts and merely snap in Auto mode. They often have the cheap kit lens or a highly compromised mega-zoom, they don’t know how the technology works and they don’t experiment with the creative functions. An Irish girl said she needs more zoom.
Descending the hill in the dark, I met three young kids selling junk souvenirs. They were pushy and I bought a doll on
3 dollars
Palace Museum, Luang Prabang. Entrance 30,000 Kip. a keyring for 5000 kip from one. The other two said I had to give them each 1000 kip for transport home across the river, small change. Continuing along the street, as the restaurants were starting to fill, a tuk-tuk driver offered ganja and then ladies. I felt disappointed that Luang Prabang is tourist-affected and becoming commercialised. There’s scarce industrial development in Laos and people are attracted to tourism in search of dollars and euros.
If a place is outstanding, foreigners will move in. The more classy establishments in Luang Prabang are run by French, Australians and others. Stopping at a riverside, open-air bar for a beer or two, I struck up a conversation with a Korean woman. She was opening a café in town. Quite the intellectual, we talked for an hour or two, about Korea, religious beliefs, Laos and mostly about the tourism industry. I learned that only recently have the tourist fees increased from cents to dollars and it’s true that the foreigner always pays more than locals (prices are not displayed in most shops and in the markets). Laos is hungry for our dollars and they are learning. They know we visit Luang Prabang for
Phu Si hill
After a disappointing sunset, I shot this. Luang Prabang. only a couple of days and will pay inflated prices because we feel that we must do see the sights, because we don’t know the local price, because it’s still affordable relative to the western world and because we are not skilled in bargaining.
I left the next morning by slow boat up the Mekong River. I remember Luang Prabang as a pleasant little town although I was not greatly impressed by the World Heritage and more affected by the commercial feeling of the tourist quarter. UNESCO brought fame and money to Luang Prabang, can it now survive tourism?
Luang Prabang entered the
World Heritage list in 1995 on cultural criteria. The well preserved townscape shows a remarkable blending of traditional and colonial cultural traditions that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Around 600 buildings have been classified within the heritage protection zone.
For the best craic and a different perspective try
Amie Shannon’s mad blog, someone I met on the bus.
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