Luang Prabang (Just a Smidge)

As promised, here are a few highlights from my trip this past weekend to the northern Lao city of Luang Prabang, the ancient royal capital of Laos that was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1995. We didn't spend much time in the city, opting to speed off to Nong Kiaw Village the next day, knowing that we'll return again (such a hot destination and only a 40 minute plane ride from Vientiane; see pink arrow to the right).

We feared that the guesthouses and hotels would all be booked for the holiday week, but didn't have a problem locating vacancies. There's a wide range of accommodations in the city, but Vieng (the sweetheart that she is) found a guesthouse for us very close to the Night Market for $15/night.



Luang Prabang, farther north along the Mekong from Vientiane, is such a calm city, and the Night Market is so laidback and quiet. There's very little hassling or hard bargaining, even from the tuk-tuk drivers; all our drivers gave us fair fares from the start. The Night Market consisted of a long street of rows and rows of stalls selling handicrafts, like jewelry, lanterns, paintings, Tshirts, and textiles galore (silk scarves, sinh, bags, blankets...happy happy happy). But I resisted!! Besides, I want to first buy any wares (particularly the weaving) from the remote provinces/villages I'll visit for work and support those local economies.



Dinner of salted fish over charcoal, sticky rice, spicy bamboo, yummy green things, and fruit shakes. How many fruit shakes did we drink?? At 5000 kip (about 60 cents) each, it's hard to say.



Other sights -- on my last day out before returning to Vientiane, the afternoon spent was my call since Dave was staying on for a few more days to travel. So I wanted to hit the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center. But it was closed on Mondays. Drat!

But there was a curious arrow sign to the side of the building leading to some wat. I hadn't done my reading, so didn't know what it was, but thought, hey why not? So we followed the signs, curving around hills and through people's backyards, scaring chickens, pressing on through a forest and seeing some dern cool dragonflies...until we reached a ticket booth.

We had reached the bottom of the Phu Si hill, which dominates Luang Prabang's skyline. The temples on this hill are newer, but the 24 meter high golden spike of That Chomsi atop the hill can be seen pushing through the green forest tops from most any place in the city. There were gilded Buddhas for each day of the week, a golden reclining Buddha, Buddha's footprint, and a small cave with a big, fat golden Buddha in the middle. The top of Phu Si presented great views of the city and Mekong River.

Next time in Luang Prabang, I would like to check out Wat Xieng Thong, Pak Ou caves, and Tat Kuang Si waterfalls. I can tell you more about them now from what I've read, but that would just dampen the joy of sharing them with you for real later!