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Published: September 3rd 2007
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A tiger in a cage, can never see the sun...
This huge beast was found as a cub, with hair falling out in tufts on it's way to be sold for Chinese medicine. Poor thing. Luang Prabang is credited as being the best preserved historical town in Southeast Asia. After seeing the villages in the rural areas, I'm sure I was always going to judge any amount of development as destroying the culture. But I think, on the whole, this town has retained a lot of its original charm. Or else, created a lot of charm in recent years. In short, as you may have guessed, I found this place charming.
For Sydneysiders, I think Luang Prabang is best compared to Balmain. A Balmain, where instead of yuppies there are a couple of tourists (yet the place is pretty far from being touristy). But because of this element, the initial coolness of the place is a bit more sterilised and expensive than what it probably originally was.
What I mean by this is that the shops all sell the same products. As in they have the same tags (though some have differing prices), with a particular brand name, that all these trendy shops stock. In terms of southeast Asia, the stuff is pretty expensive as well. But there are a few reasons that I don't consider all this a totally bad thing:
a)
A bear from the sanctuary
Quite a shockingly bad photo. But blogs look prettier with photos, and I didn't take any of Luang Prabang. The brand that all the shops stock is all stuff made in Laos, so that in buying something you are definitely supporting their economy, and not just getting imports from China or Thailand.
b) These places are actually legitimate if you want to buy some sort of real artifact. If you want to buy an antique Laos hilltribe spoon for example, you're going to get charged quite a lot of money, but at least you're getting the real thing.
c) Unlike so many places the stuff they sell is actually really nice. I was sorely tempted by a lot: old Tin Tin ads in French (from when the French ruled Laos), ink drawings, canvases, statues... a lot of it influenced by the French, and as someone who grew up to appreciate western art, it definitely appeals to my eye quite a lot.
d) These shops hadn't totally lost their individual charm either. A lot of them were set up as 'galleries', with some featuring a certain artist or style that others didn't, a few actually set up in old French colonial houses.
Anyway, I was in heaven, standing in the attic of an old French colonial building, looking at an old furnishing that had survived, then at the Laos version of Warhol's Marilyn Monroe prints, with a set up of old umbrella, lounge chairs and hilltribe costumes on the floor below.
The next day we had off, and I, in true Laos style (or at least that's what I'm trying to convince myself), did basically nothing. That night, after a 50c vegetarian buffet, we went ten pin bowling. I got such an embarrassing score in both games that I'm not even going to mention them in this blog. Trust me though, very embarrassing. I managed to get a strike on my first go, but after that developed a spin on the ball that I couldn't get rid of, so every go after that was curving. That's what I blame it on anyway. Bowling can be quite fun if you're going shockingly though, because I was willing to try out anything to improve my game: using my right hand, closing my eyes, aiming to the right/ left/ middle/ gutter. Nothing worked, but it was fun at least trying.
Afterwards we went out to a Laos 'nightclub' called the Hive. It was more a pretty chilled out bar, but nice nonetheless. But after trying a few of the Laos style spirits, I think I'll definitely stick to beers. It was a fun night though, my roomie, Abbey acquired a 'No Smoking' sign from the club, (they are all around Luang Prabang because the place is a World Heritage Site- I think), and a few of the group were convinced to have a chilli eating competition when we went to get some noodle soup. It's amazing how much you can get people to do just by daring them.
Anyway, the next morning we headed off to visit the Royal Palace Museum, which is where Laos' royal family stayed until they were driven out in 1975. It was just basically all the sitting rooms and bedrooms and stuff as they'd been when they left. Kind of interesting I guess.
Then it was off to Kuang Si Falls, where there are supposed to be beautiful tranquil waters for swimming. There must have been some massive downpours though, because the place was gushing out heaps of brown coloured water and a lot of the paths were flooded. Even the locals were impressed. Deprived of swimming, we checked out the tiger and bears saved from poaching. The bears looked kind of like moles, but we got to see them at lunchtime, and they were pretty monkeylike climbing around to get food out of nooks and crannies. Quite odd creatures really.
It was a quiet afternoon, watching Marie Antoinette, then going out to dinner. The next morning we flew into Vietiane...
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