Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang is magic. It is Thailand 20 years ago, because Thailand now is so touristy not being anymore the calm paradise of the forgotten hippies. Lunag Xueng Prabang was the capital of Laos till the communists moved it to Vient Cheng, the “sandalwood city”, renamed by the French, Vientiane. The king built here a palace, that was originally supposed to be the French governor palace, at the beginning of the 20th century and ruled the country from here. But the roads were terrible and Mekong unreliable so a trip on the Mekong from here to Saigon took longer than an ocean crossing to Paris. So Luang Prabang remained unspoiled by times and modernity and just recently the road got renovated and you can get to Vientiane in 10 hours by bus on a switchy mountain road. It looks like a larger village but is full of temples called wat like in Thailand, built in a similar style, and lots of restaurants, bars, internet cafes and outfitters who wants to take you in all sorts of adventures, by bikes, elephants, rafting or kayaking. I woke up early but I laid down in bed and I had my breakfast of fruits with yogurt and sandwich on French bread finished at 9:00am and just after that I left in exploration. I visited most of the wats in town, the town being small and if you rush a little you definitely can cover in a day or two. I took it very easy, chatting with monks and visiting slowly the sites and the Royal Palace. The king, after was appointed by the Commies “Supreme Adviser”, on the same model they did in Vietnam, was jailed in a cave and he died in the 80s of malnutrition and lack of medicine. Officially…. it is not official version but his picture, statues and portraits are all over the palace, that look exactly the way it was when he was evacuated from it. His two daughters are living in Paris, two sons in the USA and another one of them, the Crown Prince is here in Luang Prabang in his previous residence that is transformed in hotel nowadays, after Laos also adopted market economy policies. I walked the entire day through the wats, on the shore of the Mekong and his tributary, Nom Kham, Luang Prabang being located on a sort of peninsula between these two rivers. I stopped at lunch for a cold beer in a very shi-shi bar Kili Wine Bar, rested a little and after that I climbed the steps on top of the hill, Phu Si, to see the view of the city, unfortunately covered in a sort of smoke the entire day that makes the visibility limited. It gives a hazy look to the sun. Coming back to the main street I tried to call again at “bunici” but to no avail and I had an early dinner of Indian Food, not so good like the great Lao dish of fish I had yesterday in Tam Tam Bamboo. Now I will go in the night market, something similar with Chiang Mai with the difference that it closes around 10pm because the entire city does not stay late at all, except several bars for foreigners.
I tried during the morning to arrange a trip to the Plain of Jars but it is not so easy. If you go by bus it takes one day each way and you spent one day there. I tried to go by minibus, just two days but I have to find other people to do it and it may be more difficult. So, if it does not work out I may skip it and do something else in the North in an area with markets and many other minorities. It is a great difference between Laos and Vietnam, a difference that the French tried to ignore and failed. The Annamite Line separates the two people and this mountain range is actually the demarcation between the Chine influenced people and the Hindu influenced people. In spite of the fact that Champas were Hindus they were complete absorbed in the Vietnamese state that had a huge Chinese heritage. Everything there is Chinese, starting with the temples that look and feel like in China, with the Buddhist tradition that does not have the Buddha statues we were used to, the Confucius influence that is the core of the belief and finishing with the people that act like the Chinese, but being more gentle and nicer that the Chinese, with the food that resembles the style of Chinese cooking, that after 3 weeks I could not take it anymore and I went for an Australian Steak…. Besides, the Chinese influence and the new market economy made Vietnam the new capitalist Mecca, and people act this way. Everything is business, calls for ” buy from me”, “cheap”, money photo”, “one picture one dollar”, “give tip”, “same same…but different” are regular and all the foreigners are amused or annoyed by them. They made it as logo on T-shirts and the worst place is Sapa, where the Black Hmong are the most intense. The tranquility you expect in SE Asia has nothing in common with Vietnam and the worst is in the big cities where the traffic can make your life a hell. But after a while, maybe a little more than 1 week, you learn to walk in the middle of a hellish traffic thinking about your stuff, ignoring and being completely oblivious at the cacophony of sounds that surrounds you. Absolutely anybody who has any form and size of a horn, be sure that he will use it continuously and after a while in your mind the noise disappears… Maybe you were able to stop the world! When you land in Luang Prabang the shock is huge. The fact that the buses are not pressing the horns and nobody is peddling towards you is so surprising that you think that you landed in paradise. Everything is very slow, like the flow of the Mekong, people do not smile all the time but they are extremely nice and very polite, the time stops and you realize that you landed back in time, maybe sometimes in the 60s in a dreamy Thailand. Everybody who stays here, stays much more than they need, hang out, take a bike, nurse a beer, or chat with others. This looks to be the place where everybody comes to relax after a “tour of duty” in India, Vietnam or China. And me too also, because now my vacation starts from here!
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