There’s a quote by Samual Johnson in 1777 that: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” Well, when you’re tired of life, there’s always Luang Prabang. I don’t know exactly what it is about this city, but it’s got a really relaxing, cultured vibe to it.
Maybe it’s the fact that it was deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Maybe it’s because it’s located on a peninsula at the confluence of the Nam Khan and Mekong Rivers. Maybe it’s the extensive colonial French architecture throughout the historic center of the city. Maybe it’s because its name in Lao means “Royal Buddha Image” and it’s considered the spiritual capital of Laos with many temples over 500 years old. Maybe it’s the fact that it was the royal capital of the Kingdom of Laos until 1975.
Luang Prabang has a large night market relative to its size. Most of it is clothing and artwork with a nice food court at one end.
There are a number of very relaxing cafes and restaurants along the Mekong River.
At the intersection of the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers someone is building a bamboo walking bridge. This is usually done right after the rainy season ends and they charge a small fee to cross to raise money for the local area. For some reason, even though it was less than two months until the next rainy season, they were just doing it now.
Yes, even monks can be tourists as noted by the two below walking around with cameras. I saw them earlier in the day at another wat.
Wat Xieng Thong was built in 1560 and is still one of the most important Lao monasteries. There have been a number of restorations over the years to keep it still looking relatively despite its 450 year age.
One of the landmarks of Luang Prabang is Mount Phou Si which is a 100 meter high hill in the center of the city. It’s a local religious site, and houses several Buddhist shrines.
The view from the top provides a great vista of the Nam Khan River and some of the outlying areas of the city.
One of the more sobering places in Luang Prabang is the UXOLAO Visitor Center. UXO stands for unexploded ordinances and it’s a very sad legacy of the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese had the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply line from North Vietnam that snaked through Laos and Cambodia to reach South Vietnam. They never admitted the trail existed and the US never admitted that we bombed the hell out of Laos and Cambodia to try to stop the flow of supplies.
UXOLAO is the organization the oversees the removal of all these ordinances. Almost 50 years after the bombing stopped there are still dozens of accidents each year from these unexploded bombs. More importantly, the economy in Laos is still stunted because of the fear of expanding agriculture in areas of the country that have still not been meticulously cleared.
On a more uplifting note I had a chance to take a Lao cooking class through the Mandarin Restaurant. The restaurant is in town, but their school is about 20 minutes out of town in a beautiful rural setting.
After “massaging” the sticky white rice with our hands to clean it, the rice is being cooked over these fires.
We got to make jeow mak keua which is an eggplant dip with chilis, salt, garlic, fish sauce, coriander and a spring onion.
This is oua si khai, or stuffed lemongrass. We made a sauce of garlic, onions, coriander, lime leaf and salt and mixed it in with some chicken. Then we cut a stalk of lemongrass to make a basket and stick the chicken into it. Finally they were cooked in oil below.
For desert we made khao gam, which is purple sticky rice with coconut sauce.
The final item we made was mok pa, which is fish steamed in banana leaves. The sauce the fish was basted in first included rice powder, asian shallots, garlic, chili, lemongrass, salt, lime leaves, dill, Lao basil and onions. It was wrapped in the banana leaf and then steamed.
The full meal is shown below. The staff made a soup and another tomato and pork dish to compliment the dishes we made.
The group picture with me, an American and her daughter, an American retired couple and a French couple. They were actually the first Americans I think I met in Southeast Asia outside of Chiang Mai. The retired couple were on a 3 month trip. The daughter and her husband were now travelling full time as digital nomads, and the mother came out for a month’s visit.
I had a chance to visit the Kuang Si Falls and Bear Sanctuary. The sanctuary housed a number of Asiatic black bears that were injured in the wild.
The falls were beautiful. The water was refreshingly cold and there were scores of fish nimbling at my legs and feet clearing off dead skin. It was a bit strange at first, but once I got used to it, it was a bit theraputic. It was also really crowded with both Asian and Western tourists, but for some reason I was able to get these pictures without anyone in them, so it seems a lot more tranquil than it really was. Although it was still a really nice experience.
I stayed at a really nice guesthouse in the center of town.
