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Published: December 11th 2006
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Luang Prabang was the one time capital of Laos, and currently it's second biggest city. Of course in Laos a city doesn't actually feel like a city as I know it. It feels like a nice mid-sized town where everyone more or less knows one another. The people aren't in a rush, they smile and wave, and they're in no way interested in hawking you. You may get two offers in a row from a tuk-tuk driver, but that's about as aggressive as sales people get. The main road isn't bustling with traffic. Crossing the street you barely need to look both ways. And that's partly thanks to the fact that they refuse to rent scooters to us foreigners, which is a great idea to reduce noise pollution and ensure the tuk-tuk industry stays strong. And since prices are so reasonable, it's a more luxurious and easy option if you do need to go anywhere your feet or bicycle can't take you. Then, around 5 or 6pm every night a section of the main road closes down for the 'Night Market.' Downtown quiets down even more, the market adds a great warmth to the atmosphere, and you can't help but stroll
around. In fact it sort of reminds me of returning home after a long day of work. (no jokes please.) You make a mental shift. It's like the city has set the table with a warm meal, and turned down the sheets to signal the end of another perfect day. You just get relaxed, or as the case is in Laos, even more relaxed. Vendors set up their crafts on mats laid over the pavement, hang single bare light bulbs from a single bamboo stick, and politely let you browse the market and their goods with friendly smiles and helpful conversation. (Now that I think of it, I have no idea where they plugged those light bulbs in. I'm guessing had I looked I would have seen extension cords tapped into lamp posts.) I love it. You could linger and look, and ask questions with out feeling obligated or pressured to buy everything your eyes touched. What a novel concept! The market was full of crafty objects...hand made cloth shoulder bags, cloth baby carriers, beautiful fabrics weaved by the local villages, old opium pipes, wood carvings, paintings, t-shirts, a few books, bed-spreads, etc. Everything was local or derived from local
culture. This was quite a change from Bangkok's 'everything under the sun' mad house markets. The night market also had a small side street (south side and towards the river) that served up some fantastic local food. My favorite was a snapper-like fish fresh from the Mekong River, grilled over coals, and 'reverse skewered' by using a single bamboo reed, split down the middle (where the fish goes), and thusly clamped into a 'fish-sicle' style dinner. How simplistically scrumptuos! And the whole fish for only about $1.50 to boot. That leaves plenty of room in the budget for bottles of $0.70 to $1.00 Lao Beer (which also happen to be around 22 ounces in size.) And while the town, excuse me, city goes to bed around 11pm, the late night revelers can head just out of the center to the Vietnam Bar. The Vietnam bar has that back room card game kind of feeling. The front door is a bamboo framed bamboo mat that is scrupulously manned by the owners brother. (or so I imagined he was anyway.) It's not entirely legal to be open so late serving alcohol, but everyone knows about it and it's just fine. The tuk-tuks even line up outside around 2-3pm when the place closes down which is quite convenient. Strangely, the bar is set in a house, next to other actual residences. It even has a laminated 8.5 by 11 inch sign that asks you to "please be quiet." Of course that concept is relative to the approximately 20-30 foreigners inside. In fact I had such a great time meeting people, talking the traveller talk, and feeling like I was in on a secret, that I would say any visit to Luang Prabang should include at least one visit to the Vietnam Bar as well. Of course another option for late partying is to sit around your $3 a night hostel and share a $1 bottle of (pretty damn decent) whiskey. And if you're not happy with it, the label lists the cell phone number of the 'master distiller from Australia.' So I guess you can just give the lad a call. In hindsight I should have done just that to say 'thanks, keep up the good work."
Luang Prabang of course had a lot more to offer than the main strip. All around L.P. are beautiful sights. You can take your pick of waterfalls that come straight from a picture book. You can sign up for treks, river rafting, village stays, mountain biking, and so much more. Temples, monasteries and vistas abound as well. In fact, it's such a beautiful and important place that I met a few monks who travelled here from the USA for a visit of their own. One of them even had his own camera man because his mother wanted to see pictures! They blessed me with a small string bracelet, and then insisted I get in some of the pictures with them. Soon I was posing for photos with several local and foreign monks at the temple atop Mount Pusay. (no jokes please.) The other tourists were looking at me with a 'who are you?' expression on their faces. I had my own expression of "I don't know and I'm a little uncomfortable." A couple of Thai girls mistranslated that expression and asked for a picture as well. Too embaressed to ask, "you know I'm just a tourist right?," I put on a smile and hammed it up.
My first two days in Luang Prabang were actually spent mounatin biking to a village, spending the night in a bamboo stilt house, then kayaking home the following day. Once I convert my photos to jpegs I will post my experience and pics. It was beautiful, relatively non-eventful, and completely unforgettable. I look forward to sharing that one down the road. Until then, I'll try to update you on the other Laos cities, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and Myanmar. Ay-yi-yi!
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lyla kraft
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great read
just finished your last adventure, just warms my heart to know how special this time of travel is for you. if only the world could travel and learn to understand others war might not exist, a least not as harsh and often such a dreamer i am. anxiously awaiting the pictures. go well lyla