Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Sabadie from Luang Prabang in Laos, where things are so very chilled. If you fly in, the airport is located in the middle of the new town, which, as with all of LP, is in a relatively small natural bowl created by a 360 degree sentry of steep, rainforest covered mountains. After a short drive you arrive in a natural paradise, an old town at the junction of two rivers, one of them the Mekong. The old town is on a peninsula which, like the rest of LP, is covered in palm trees and other rainforest plantation. Always visible in the near distance are the mountain ranges, covered usually by light rainy season mist. The buildings in the old town are a fusion of temple design and French colonialist architecture, neatly maintained white concrete structures with the gabled roofs a la temple style. Unless the buildings are temples themselves, of which there are many, clearly all in temple style.
The place is rapidly becoming a popular tourist destination, but retains much of its old-town charm, with some credit due to the French who left some lovely buildings here and less unlikeable legacy than they did in other parts of Indochina (as well as some great French fusion restaurants). Apparently the French had a saying, "the Vietnamese plant the rice, the Cambodians watch it grow, and the Laotians listen to it grow." Certainly of the three countries by far it is the calmest. None of the chaotic driving. Virtually none of the hassling touts. Life just ambles by like the flow of the gigantic Mekong River. We stayed at the Mekong Riverview Hotel, perched right on the point of the peninsula where the Mekong meets the other river (Nam Kham). It was well lush, a beautiful place to hang out over the five days we were there. Sitting on our balcony watching the river roll by, framed by surrounding mountains, was seductive. And the rhythm of the town, compared with almost any other town, yields a peace conducive to reflection. From the first night, we began to unwind.
Apart from the fact the town itself is UNESCO listed as a World Heritage site - sounds arsy but isn't meant to be, there's a raft of impressive Buddhist temples within the old town, which does lead to some different drum and chant type music in the wee hours but not a lot else that's worth ranting about - there's no major tourist highlights here. Being here is more about just the chance, albeit for us from a comfortable hotel, to spend time like the locals in a beautiful natural location.
We spent our first full day, which was beautifully sunny, cycling around in the morning, getting our bearings in town. Then the afternoon on a Mekong river cruise, just Gi and I and our driver Rampong, who was a cool guy. He took us to a Hmong village where Gi was besieged to buy souvenirs (she has quite a few woven purses now and was a terrible negotiator :) where we saw their mud floor huts and cable tv (they got electricity six months ago) and felt, apart from the tv, like we'd gone back a thousand years. Then he took us to Pak Ou, a cave full of Buddhas. But the star was the river, and surrounding forests. It was Amazonian-like. The natural beauty is incredible.
Our second full day was wet (it is the rainy season). So we went to the National Musuem (the old palace of the Lao King before the revolution in the seventies). The palace itself was modest. The key to the revolution was the series of American cars in the king's garage, suggesting an inappropriate influence around the time Americans were bombing the bejesus out of Laos for supposed Viet Cong influence. We also climbed Mount Phousi (the aerial photos of the river are from there) and finished up with epic massages. Nice day.
Our last full day, today, a sunny day, was also cool. We went to the morning market (check out the photos, some bizarre things were going on), then to the waterfalls of Tad Sae, which involved a short drive, then a short boat ride in a motorized canoe so unstable you were glad to get out again, then a short hike uphill to a series of small falls with some bathing pools. The forest, as always in this area, was very pretty. The weather, great, very hot. The water, crystal clear and very cooling. The rapids gave another great massage. It was a lovely little excursion.
Of course, like Adam and Eve we've had our fair share of falls in the Garden of Eden. The locals are well aware of what they have here, as are plenty of tourists, and profiteering is profligate (you shouldn't come here expecting Thai or Vietnamese prices). Most notably the restaurants charge roughly Western rates, and exchange rate conversions vary wildly. But it's worth saving up the pennies. Even though you're paying overs in Indochina terms, you feel you're getting value for the extra money you spend. But the reason is intangible. It's about the vibe! We know. It's hard to convey, to feel the rhythm….
Buddhism, ever-present in that rhythm, intrigues, but the discipline is ultimately forbidding. Particularly when we were woken 2 mornings out of 4 (the 7th and 8th days of the Buddist week) by drumming at 4am. The fact this has something to do with the lunar calendar and is spiritually significant was of no comfort and certainly didn't forestall some hearty swearing at the time. At least one morning we got up and waited for sunrise (5:30am) to see the alms-giving ceremony, where you get to see the monks of the area in their orange robes walking around town doing their collection of alms (food) for the day. Ok, it's a bit gross from our perspective to see tens of people flinging rice into their pots by hand. But it's also a beautiful ceremony in the dawn light. And Buddhism does stress the evils of desire, the essence of suffering; that all suffering, even food poisoning, which Geoff had when we arrived here, does pass; which it did.
So here we are feeling rested, relaxed, stomachly intact, and reinvigorated by our stay in Luang Prabang. Did it make us want to become Buddhists? No. Did we feel we found the heart of old-style Asia? More or less. In moments. Perhaps more accurately Asia with a colonial twist. Did we have an awesome time? Yep, definitely. One to put on your bucket list. Laters….
- comments