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Published: November 7th 2009
I don't know if anyone caught it, but we never did get to take part in the festivities in Chiang Mai. It was my main reason for going there and the main reason for timing our trip when I did, but things happen and plans have no choice but to change. For those who would like to know about Loy Kratong, please read this great blog that was posted by someone else there at the same time: http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-450588.html
Onward to Laos
Even as we were circling to land in Luang Prabang I could see that I was going to love it. Coconut palms pierced the clear blue skies. The muddy mighty Mekong River painted a swath of brown as far as the eye could see. And tiled roof houses stood shoulder to shoulder along the streets. We had just flown, in only an hour, from Chiang Mai, Thailand and the feeling was so much different. I had really wanted to love Chiang Mai, because for many years we had talked about going there, but I think that in the intervening years since we had missed our opportunity in 1965 the peaceful clear-aired town prized by Thais as the oasis
Villa Chitdara
View from garden. Our room is upstairs on the right.from the heat of Bangkok had metamorphed into another traffic-choked crowded haze-filled Asian city. It looked like the Bangkok that we remembered from during the Vietnam Conflict; Bangkok in turn had morphed into a Tokyo. Neither one was what we were looking for in Southeast Asia. Luang Prabang turned out to be the destination in our travel dreams.
The Peninsula
Thanks to fortuitous geography and history, the peninsula that makes up the main village escaped the ravages of war that destroyed many parts of Laos, and benefitted from the timely inclusion into the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1996, which saved the village from modern over-run. Only a portion of Luang Prabang, the peninsula is only 3 streets wide: one along the Mekong lined with little open-air eateries riverside and shops opposite; the main street, along the Nam Khan River, with all manner of guest houses, restaurants, internet cafes, craft shops, and (legitimate) massage parlors; the third street, a quiet street between the Mekong street and the main street, is where we are staying - a delightful boutique hotel named Villa Chitdara. In typical Lao style, the floors, wainscotting, windows and doors are beautiful polished teak,
Villa Chitdara
Pavillion where we are served breakfast. kept so by the practice of removing ones shoes before entering. UNESCO rules limit the building of hotels in the historic area to only one or two stories and a maximum of 15, I think, rooms, so the character of the town is kept uniform. The reception is open air and we turn in our key each time we go out. In the rear garden there is a pavillion where we are served breakfast each morning. A lot of the public funding that has gone into the town has allowed the building of lovely herringbone patterned brick sidewalks to make strolling the narrow streets more comfortable. And compared to Chiang Mai, strolling the streets is an absolute pleasure - very few cars, tuk-tuks, or mopeds compete with the pedestrians or disrupt the peacefulness. Wats are everywhere! There are 63 of them in Luang Prabang, so there is a different one to explore at every turn. To go with the Wats there are hundreds of saffron-robed monks. Each morning at 6 AM they walk the streets in long files, collecting the sticky rice and other offerings that are placed in their alms buckets by the faithful who kneel at the side
Long Orange Line
Monks accepting offerings of rice from the faithful each morning between 6 and 7 AM of the road. The monks that we saw filing by seem mostly to be the youngest (novices), ranging in age from about 10 to early 20's. Buddhist monks eat only breakfast and lunch, so when they make their morning stroll they have not eaten since lunch the previous day. Buddhists believe that by feeding the monks they are earning merit for themselves and their families. The rest of the day the monks spend in chanting, in studies, and in work projects within the Wat. If you’re fortunate, as we were, you can happen upon a wat when the monks are reciting their morning chants. Most Buddhist men will spend at least a part of their life as a monk, usually as teen-agers; some will live at the Wat for the rest of their lives.
The Royal Palace
Yesterday we toured a few historic sites with a guide. One of the most interesting was the Royal Palace museum, built in the early 1900's but renovated extensively to include a foreign dignitaries' reception hall by the crown prince in the 1970's; however the monarchy was officially dissolved by the Pathet Lao in 1975 and the royal family exiled to a
Royal Museum
Building being completed to hold the holy Prabang cave, from which they never publicly reappeared. Most assume that they were killed; however some believe that the children of the King escaped and assumed new identities and are still alive somewhere in the world - kind of southeast Asian Anastasias. The museum holds a lot of relics of earlier days, including a nearly solid gold Buddha 32” tall, by legend originally cast in Sri Lanka in the first century and given by the Khmers to Fa Ngum, one of the earliest rulers of Luang Prabang in the 1300's. It also holds many lovely gifts given by visiting dignitaries to the king, including exquisite ivory carvings from China, fine china from the King of Thailand, and from the United States? The key to Los Angeles from Mayor Sam Yorty and a pen and pencil set from JFK…….
Plans Change
One of the highlights of the trip was to have been a Lao cooking class today; however that was not to be. I have been quite ill ever since the elephant trek, and have been off my feed for 4 days now. I think that I suffered an adverse reaction to the DEET that I applied for the jungle
Bamboo Bridge
Bridge over the Nam Khan built by the villagers who must rebuild after every flood season. trek, as the same thing happened to me in Peru 4 years ago. As a result I have been living on fruit juices, fruit and yoghurt shakes (really tasty) and just yoghurt - hardly Lao cuisine! We’re also dying to try some of the French cooking to be found here as a result of being part of French Indo-china for 70 years. Maybe tomorrow Buddha will smile on me and make me human again. In addition - a second try at getting my laptop fixed has failed, so I’m still at the mercy of the public computer to file my new blogs. On the bright side - the weather has been perfect - sunny and about 80 during the day, chilly enough to need a jacket and socks in the morning and evenings. The town is perfect for strolling - perhaps the size of New Hope PA and Lambertville NJ combined. So we took in the tip of the peninsula this afternoon, and even found an iconic bamboo bridge crossing the Nam Khan with a snaggle-tooth Lao grandmother guarding the entrance to exact a 5000 kip toll (about US$.40). Each rainy season the rising river washes the bridge away and
the locals must rebuild it to connect their little village with the LP peninsula. On the banks farmers grow their crops in the rich alluvial soil and on the river they cast their nets hoping to bring fish to their home or to the market.
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Shirley
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Onward to Laos
Sandy... I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed your blogs... If I do not see one I ask everyone in the office if I have missed one.. Get that darn wifi up and running.. we NEED to follow your blogs :-) Thank you they are wonderful to read...