Our Introduction to Luang Prabang

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Singapore - Bangkok - Luang Prabang

Since no airline yet flies from Singapore direct to Luang Prabang, where we were to start our journey, and the morning flight out of Bangkok was too early for a connection, we caught the late evening Singapore Airlines flight to Bangkok and checked into the Quality Suites, a ten-minute drive from the airport. I had booked this hotel on the web, and my success rate on selecting hotels this way is pretty good: but this time my instincts failed me. It had looked acceptable on the page, but perhaps I was seduced by the price, since we were just sleeping in the place - 2,190 Baht (then US$55) for a large suite, including airport transfers, breakfast, tax, etc. But it was, to be generous, rather tired and seedy.

Our great friends from London, Donna and Rami Kabbani and their two teenagers, Darius and Alexanna, had arrived in Singapore the day before, and I think they wondered what I was getting them into; not the sort of place they would have wished for to sleep off their tiredness and jet-lag. Still, we could all see the funny side - especially the type face and "Q" of the Quality Suites logo which was blatantly stolen (although they now seem to have changed it) from the Quality Street confectionery brand - and our "Quality Street" experience became a standing joke of the trip. We shared some uninspiring food and some hilariously mixed-up drinks in one of our worn-out suites before some of us fell into a thankful sleep while others tossed and turned, and struggled with jet-lag and dreams of giant bed-bugs.

All seemed slightly better in the morning, despite our promised wake-up calls never materializing and an unappetizing breakfast buffet. After last minute airport shopping for forgotten necessities, we took a Bangkok Airways ATR72 turbo-prop for the hour and fifty minute flight to Luang Prabang. The approach path over the "city" gave us a good idea just how small Luang Prabang is - from 100 meters above ground you can capture the whole of the old town and its landmark rock formation, Mount Phousi, in a not too wide angle shot.

Luang Prabang airport is, unsurprisingly, small. On average, it sees around half a dozen flights in/out a day. We all paid our US$30 visa fee (actually $31 today since it was Saturday, and quaint notices advised that a $1 overtime charge applies at weekends), apart from Lisa who - as an ASEAN citizen - didn’t need one. Outside, we were met by Kun Bounsavath (Wat, for short), our guide for Luang Prabang. He and the driver took us straight off to Indochina Restaurant ten minutes away, where a table awaited us in a shady, pleasant garden, and we lunched on our first Lao food. The menu set the stage for many similar ones throughout our trip, but the spring rolls and the watercress soup were particularly good at Indochina - as was the ice-cold and good-tasting Beer Lao at $1 a bottle.

After lunch we checked into the Apsara, a small hotel in the conservation area on the banks of the Nam Khan River which flows into the Mekong a few hundred meters to the northeast. We were welcomed by Ivan Scholte, the British owner introduced to us by several friends of ours in London and Bangkok, and were shown to large elegant rooms on the upper floor of the main building and annex, all with balconies overlooking the river.

A short drive then took us to our first Lao wat (temple or monastery being the closest translation). Wat Visunnarat (or Wat Visoun) was rebuilt about a hundred years ago as a replica of the original wooden building from 1513. The elegant Lao-style sim (ordination hall, usually the main building of a wat) contains a large collection of Buddha images of all shapes and sizes, most of which are over 400 years old, and outside is a large stupa known as That Makmo ('melon stupa') erected in 1504 by Queen Visounalat in Sinhalese style. Next door is the smaller Wat Aham, built in 1823. It has some lovely decorated columns, but the inside walls are covered with rather garish modern murals of hellish torment.

We ignored rapidly darkening skies and set out to walk to Mount Phousi, but it started to pour within a few hundred meters and we sheltered on the terrace of a house where two art school teachers were earning some extra money painting a New Year banner for the owner. The rain did not seem about to let up so we took our mini-bus back to the Apsara in the late afternoon where we sat on the verandah watching and listening to the torrential rain cascade into the Nam Khan.

We whiled away the next few hours over beer, Black Label, and lime and lychee daiquiris. The rains came and went, the evening sun broke through just long enough to bathe the river banks in a warm orange glow, and suddenly it was eight o'clock, and time for dinner. Luang Prabang is that sort of place. Ivan's kitchen produced an excellent Lao feast - especially the salads and the buffalo sausage - which we washed down with a bottle or two of passable Sipp Riesling.

So ended our first day in Luang Prabang. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage site for ten years based on its well-preserved fusion of traditional Lao urban structures with colonial architecture from the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet none of it is large-scale or particularly stunning: just calmly pleasing and elegantly proportioned. Even before we had the chance to wander around its quiet slow-moving streets, we sensed it possessed a peace and harmony that are hard to find in the modern world. It is very much a lived-in community - not yet prettified for the mounting number of tourists finding their way here - and very accessible, just four streets criss-crossed with numerous smaller lanes along a narrow peninsular raised up above the Mekong and Nam Khan which encircle it on three sides. A place to be unhurried, to sit and watch, to read a book, to absorb the tranquility.

Howard's Laos Galleries

To view a map of our journey, click Route Map

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Photos

Banks of the Nam Khan River
After the rain...