LAOS: Luang Prabang

LAOS:
Luang Prabang:
We arrived at the bus depot outside of Luang Prabang, and I gathered a group of people (2 English, 2 French) with whom to negotiate a tuk-tuk ride into the center. The French couple was rude in the tuk-tuk, rude to guys who tried to get us to look at their guesthouse, and when we arrived at the hotel the other three of us had noted in our guidebooks, they got out first and took the last room with a bathroom. Grrrr! The other couple (Helen and Robin) and I found another place quickly enough, though, and agreed we’d love to have a drink together later if it worked out.

I dumped my stuff and went out to see what I could in the remaining daylight: Wats (there are 66 temples from pre-French colonization) Saen, Sop, Sirimungkhun, Si BunHeuang and Xieng Thong (external only; it was closing), and a whole lot of well-preserved and less well-preserved French provincial and traditional Lao architecture (the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site for those reasons). The natural beauty is also to be appreciated: the surrounding mountains, interior wetlands and the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan. The mix of Lao people, tourists, monks, novices, and hill-tribers make for a people-watching extravaganza, too. (one fun thing I saw everywhere: checkerboard-tables with bottlecaps for pieces—right-side-up or upside-down)

In visiting any temple, because most of them are in active use, tourists will always be approached by novices eager to practice their English. This is how their half of the conversation ALWAYS goes, very slowly and with varying degrees of grammatical correctness: “Hello! How are you? Where are you from? How long have you been in Luang Prabang? How long will you stay? Where do you go next?” The questions were unfailingly in that order. I felt like I was back in auto-English Korea.

I knocked on Helen and Robin’s door, but missed them; they were going to rest first and then go out, but I’d wanted to take advantage of the light and of sites being open. I went to the riverside for traditional Luang Prabang cuisine: steamed veggies with jaew bawng (chilli sauce and dried buffalo skin—um, yuck) and khao kam (local, sweet, fizzy rice wine-good, although I had a bad glass the next day). I wasn’t particularly satisfied, but figured I’d find snacks at the night market, which was next on my list.

The night handicraft market was indeed a street full of handicrafts, and 100% touristy. “Madame, buy scarf, buy something, lucky, lucky…” UGH). I did buy a few things, as I was at the end of my Asia tour, and I sampled some fun snacks (a grilled chicken breast on a huge skewer, desserty coconuty tapioca-ey balls) before calling it a night.

On Wednesday I went for a morning run over a pedestrian/bike/moto-only bridge into an area of villages and small farms, and it seemed that I was quite a novel sight. I got smiles all around, though, and an occasional cheer!

I swung through Wat Maisuwannaphumaham before picking up a baguette sandwich (tuna, a foil-wrapped triangle of soft cheese, chili sauce, carrots, cucumbers, watercress and pepper—great!) en route to Talat Dala, the oldest market, which turned out to be closed and under major construction. So I moved on and saw Wats Wisunerat, with its ‘watermelon stupa,’ Aham, with two huge banyan trees, Pattuak, of ‘Buddha’s footprint,’ and Thammothayalan, halfway up Phu Si (huge hill in the center of town), where I had excellent views of the Nam Khan. I continued up to That Chomsi (a stupa at the peak) and back down to Wat Pa Huak, which was small but beautiful and very old.

Across the street, I took many photos of the National Museum, but had to wait until later to enter, as it was closed in the middle of the day. I tried to get info on evening performances at the theatre there, but it, too, was closed and seemed to have no regular hours.

Disappointed that the big market was gone, I took a long walk to Talat Phoysi and a Chinese market, both of which were pretty uninspiring. I had a detour through a small village in between before I realized that I couldn’t get out the other side, but found my way to the main road and enjoyed the scenery there.

On the way back into town, I finally found a recommended restaurant I’d wanted to try, but it was closed, so I ended up at another spot along the Mekong and ordered another LP dish, aw lam (spicy-bitter root, lemongrass, chicken, veggies—excellent). By that time, I’d missed the small window of time that the National Museum is open in the afternoon, so I browsed the neighborhood of silversmiths and craft shops. In the early evening, I tried a glass of the khao kam at a different restaurant on the water, and it wasn’t so good…but I sipped it and wrote a bunch of postcards as the sun went down.

A second trip to the theatre proved unsuccessful, and I met other tourists who’d also been stymied, so I picked up a few last souvenirs at the market, dropped them off at my room, then went to a restaurant for bamboo-fried spring rolls and BeerLao and more postcard writing.

On Thursday I got up and out early and picked up some expensive postcard stamps (about 85 cents!), got a fruity goodness shake, FINALLY got into the National Museum (some great wall decoration, lots of artifacts and history) and the Sala Pha Bang pavilion, then followed a little map I’d picked up to take the recommended ‘wetland walk’ that wasn’t mentioned in my guidebook. I saw lots of village nooks and crannies, lotus ponds, cool architecture and unique natural scenery. I’d never have known it was there if I hadn’t by chance looked at a random brochure and spent too much to buy it.

I stopped back at the guesthouse to shower, pack, check out and arrange for a ride to the airport, then went to Wat Xieng Thong to see the interiors I’d missed on the first night. This is the big-deal Wat of LP, and it included a reclining Buddha sanctuary, sim, and royal funerary carriage and carriage house. I picked up another fruit and yogurt shake (I’ll miss them!) before my ride to the airport.

All in all, Luang Prabang is certainly beautiful and unique and worth seeing, but yet it wasn’t all I’d expected it to be. It was interesting to be in a place where there were as many orange-robed Buddhists as otherwise-outfitted folk, fun to see the moto drivers also holding umbrellas for shade, wonderful (mostly) to try the food unique to the province, and otherworldly to walk around amidst all the wonderful architecture, but I was anticipating more majesty and more respite from tourists. To be fair, I was also somewhat Buddhaed- and watted- out.