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Published: January 17th 2011
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Our next stop in Northern Laos was the picturesque town of Luang Prabang. A UNESCO Heritage site, hailed as one of the prettiest cities in South East Asia. The town is set on a steamy peninsular in the Mekong river, surrounded by jungle and villages.
The colonial style centre is dotted with gleaming Laos temples or 'wats' (“Look, there's a wat”, “a What?”, “Yes, a wat”, was a conversation I never got tired of). There was a sea of tourists, an absolutely beautiful Hmong night market and a main street lined with rows of shops offering everything from backpackers breakfasts to Elephant riding. I have nothing against elephants but my elephant riding dream would probably involve being lost in a forest, learning to speak elephant and being personally invited for a ride, so we didn't do that excursion.
It's funny how mutated my ideas of money have become. Basically everything is cheap compared to in the west but when you budget on things being very cheap and travel for a long period, things take on a more local definition of expensive. In China, things like food were very affordable and I'd treat eating in a restaurant that cost over
2 GBP a person as a massive treat. Travel however was more pricey, but still good value as the distances were massive. Travelling hard sleeper, it seemed to be about 1GBP per hour. In Laos, things were skewed by the amount of external tourists. Western food was quite plentiful, quite bad and by local standards, expensive. At local food stalls however, tourists were charged double the locals but it was still only a USD or so a dish. Tuk tuks were only introduced into Laos a few years ago and unlike in neighbouring countries, seemed to be purely for tourists. These could try and charge you up to 10 USD per journey, so wherever possible we walked. Tours, like elephant riding, were cheap by western standards but compared to eating and sleeping were extortionate.
I guess in economic terms, we were bad tourists; we didn't pour lots of money into tours and VIP buses. Instead, we took local transport and where ever possible, we just wandered the streets. In Luang Prabang, they were wide and nice. There were lots of buildings left over from the colonial days including a school, with all its signs still in French. Opposite, we
stopped in a crumbling roadside café, where in a stylish environment we sipped espresso and discussed the weather. The night market absorbed most of our evenings. A long, gently lit parade of coloured silks and cloth, it was a sea of some of the prettiest souvenirs I've ever seen. And by western standards, quite cheap. Retrospectively, I wish I'd bought more. But I always do that.
The days were filled with wats. As far as I can see, its very probable that Luang Prabang actually has more wats than the rest of the world put together. This means there are almost as many monks as westerners so the town, although touristy it is still reasonably Laos and filled with Buddhist calm. Buddhism is a big thing in Laos. To spend a few years as a monk is a rite of passage for boys into manhood, so there are a lot of monks and they are well respected and looked after. We didn't even try to visit all the wat, but the ones we did see were exceedingly beautiful. They were by far the most extravagant buildings in Laos, the others being crumbling and colonial or small wooden and on
stills. The wats showed little of the poverty that was visible elsewhere, with ornate pointy roofs, guilt gold edging, glass mosaics, and intricate paintings. International funding has allowed the monks to learn how to redecorate the wats themselves, and a few were full of scaffolding, paint and stencils.
In a small wat draped with purple flowers we met a nice young monk called Hum. He came from a small village in the north east and had lived in the monastery for two years. He was teaching himself English from a single text book. For him like many others, being part of the monastery gave him the basis of an eduction and also the time to study by himself.
The wats were only eclipsed in wonder by the throne room of the royal palace. This shining apartment, ex-home to the ex-royal family (exiled when the communist seized power in the 70s), was coated roof to ceiling in shimmering glass mosaic depicting rural life around the kingdom. The whole palace was set up to look just as it was left which was a bit odd. In Laos, it is good etiquette to remove ones shoes inside, so we padded barefoot
around the dark rooms, looking at family photographs and books. It felt strangely personal. There was even the collection of royal cars in an outbuilding and a rudimentary palace petrol station.
Unfortunately, my memories of the shimmering buildings in Luang Prabang are somewhat overshadowed by a dish called Luang Prabang stew. Laos food was generally a bit of a challenge. The simple grilled meat and fresh Mekong fish was delicious. The ubiquitous sticky rice was also a delight but the combination of flavours in some of the more complex dishes took some getting used to. The main herbs were mint, which my western mind associates with chocolate, and holy basil, which has a taste between sweet basil and liquorice. Laos cuisine uses the two of them together, which is a bit odd at first. In the case of the Luang Prabang stew, basil and mint were found in stringy clumps at the base of a very bland grey soup, thnt looked a bit like vomit. The chunks were some very old vegetables and a hunk of tough chicken that I can only assume was rejected by the dog. After stinky tofu in china it was one of the most
hard to stomach meals of the trip.
The herb combination wasn't all bad and after a while I did get my head around it. I did this by eating a lot of Laos noodle soup. A staple, along with sticky rice, Laos noodle soup leaves its glories to the beholder. For less than 1 USD you get a scoop of rice noodles in broth with, if you wish, a garnish of meat or offal. You also get a big bowl of herbs and salads, fresh limes, green beans, bean sprouts and green onions which you tear up and mix in to taste. Chillies are encouraged and came in at least four forms; fresh, dried, pickled and sweet chilli sauce. And if that's not enough, fish sauce and soy sauce finish it off. It was a delicious thing and a great start to the day.
Another wonderful thing about Laos was the bread. The Baguettes, left by the French colonialists were plentiful in Luang Prabang and a perfect breakfast alternative to noodles. Chinese bread was soft and sweet so biting into crust satisfied a long craving. French bread was a real luxury that left me only lamenting the absence
of cheese. But, in the grand scheme of things, I'm pretty spoilt and cheese is not really an essential.
Travel Information:
Luang namtha- Luang Prabang 9hr bus journey arriving into northern bus station which is about 4km from the town – Be warned, the roads are bendy so have the travel sickness tablets ready!
To get an onwards bus, you can either buy tickets from one of the travel agents in town or just go to the bus station and hour or so before the bus is due to leave. We invariably found this option cheaper and really easy- its good to get there early to grab a seat anyway. In Laos the logic invariably seems to be northern bus station for those going north, southern for those going south.
Accomodation:
Kinaly Guesthouse - 50,000 kip for a fan double with bathroom – good location on a quiet street in the old town, with decent size clean rooms. No real common space so not good for solo travellers hoping to make friends!
Other potentially useful info:
If you are using the 2010 lonely planet 'Southeast Asia on a shoestring' , the tourist office is not where the map says, actually its on th. Sisavangvong at the southern end of the night market. Also the Tum Tum Cheng Restaurant (which was tasty but pricey) has moved next to its cooking school by to wat khili.
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Andreas
non-member comment
Amazing
Wow.. it is so beautiful here! I love the sign in the tree!