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Published: September 9th 2006
Temple on the hill
This is a temple you could see from our hotel room balcony.We decided to go to Luang Prabang in Laos over Labor Day weekend. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage protected town and many consider it to be the best preserved city in Southeast Asia. Laos is a communist country, but we saw only small amounts of evidence of communism in Luang Prabang. We really enjoyed it - a very relaxed place surrounded by mountains and located on the Mekong River. There were lots of beautiful wats to visit and the food was fantastic - due to the French influence, French pastries and breads were abundant. The architecture is lovely too - lots of colonial French buildings mixed in with traditional Lao wooden houses. Other Americans we met who visited there told us that Luang Prabang reminded them of Vermont because of the mountains and because a lot of the food is organic and freshly prepared due to the lack of supermarkets. We felt it was a little too hot to be Vermont, but Luang Prabang certainly had the same laid back attitude. We have also heard that Laos is like what Thailand was like 30 years ago, but I am sure that Luang Prabang will be a totally different place
Monks at the National Museum
The monks in Laos are much younger than in Thailand in general - many of them are just boys. in 10 years despite the UNESCO preservation, especially given foreign ownership and investment in the region.
We spent 3 nights there and felt that was a good amount of time. The hotel we stayed at - known as the Residence Phou Vao - was wonderful. A bit pricey by Lao standards, but cheap by Thai and U.S. standards for a luxury level hotel. We were especially glad for the swimming pool as Luang Prabang was unusually hot during our visit. The first day, we went to visit the former grand palace compound of the last king of Laos, which has now been turned into a museum. The next day we wandered around Luang Prabang visiting wats and enjoying good coffee and pastries as well as Beer Lao. Even though I'm not a big beer fan, I loved Beer Lao and really enjoyed drinking it. Amusingly, it is cheaper than soda and nearly as cheap as bottled water in Luang Prabang - about $1 U.S. for a giant bottle. The day after that, we took a trip out of town to a lovely waterfall park where Max got to feed some Asian bears bananas and Max and Jim took a
brief swim. There was also a Lao family visiting there from Vientiane who insisted that Max get in on their family photos. Our final day (the morning before we left) we took a boat down the Mekong to a traditional Lao village where they make pottery. The village was very poor and remote, but still there were satellite dishes everywhere.
At night in Luang Prabang the main street closed down for a lovely textile market where Hmong people sold their goods. However, in general the shopping in Luang Prabang was not so good. Most of the stuff sold in shops was extremely expensive - most likely because the shops seemed to be owned and run by Europeans. In Bangkok at Chatuchak market, you can find the same things for a fraction of the price. We enjoyed our evenings walking through the night market and having lovely Lao food and beer. All in all a very relaxing vacation.
Jim is in New Delhi for work this week and I'm hoping he gets some good photos for the next blog entry.
Maddy
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Great-aunt Mary
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The wat and the waterfall are especially wonderful. And I loved the one of Jim making like royalty in front of the king's statue. Maddy, find us a hotel as luxe as yours in Luang Prabang! Love, Mary