Harmonie - Lovely Laos - Luang Prabang, Laos

Lovely Laos - Luang Prabang, Laos

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Thu 16 Feb 2012 06:51

20:03.24N 102:12.79E

January 14, 2012 - January 16, 2012

You don't hear much about Laos, do you? Even here in Southeast Asia it's never mentioned in the news and no one ever talks about it except the odd boater tourist who happened to travel there. On a map Laos looks like it's being strangled by its neighbors. Vietnam, China, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand and Cambodia push in from all sides to keep Laos in its perpetually landlocked position. However, what Laos lacks in sea ports it makes up for in rivers. The mighty Mekong runs nearly the full length of the Laos western border with Thailand before running out its bottom into Cambodia to the south. Countless other tributaries filter through the various Laos mountain ranges, eventually dumping into the Mekong. Laotians are a river people. Just as you might expect to see and read in National Geographic photos and articles, they wash themselves and their clothes in the river, grow their gardens on the river banks, fish in the river, and travel in hand built wooden canoes and boats on the river. For these people, the river is life. That's not to say there aren't mountain people or city people in Laos, there are, but the impression we have from our brief visit and the bit of reading we've done is that Laos is predominantly a river people place.

Laos is the least populated country in Southeast Asia with only 6.2 million people (this is true if you don't count Brunei, which is a tiny country on Borneo's north coast). That's saying a lot since most countries around here are positively busting with people. Vietnam, for example, covers just slightly more land area than Laos, but has a population of 87 million. 87 million versus a measly 6.2. It's like the difference between the UK and New Zealand - except that Laos is in Southeast Asia where you expect to see people streaming out of every crevice and around every corner. Not just in terms of population, but in many other ways we expected Laos to be a lot like Vietnam. It's not. The people, the terrain (the bit we saw), the food, the crafts - all are different. The first thing that struck us were the people…but wait, I'm getting ahead of myself - first we had to get there.

Getting there.

We originally planned to fly from Phuket to Luang Prabang through Bangkok on January 13th. Then we realized to get a really good rate on airfare, we'd have to fly Laos Airlines from Bangkok to Luang Prabang. Then we realized January 13th was a Friday. Not that we are overly superstitious people, but sometimes you just have to ask, 'Really? Is it worth it?'. We decided against flying Laos Airlines on Friday the 13th, and booked the flights for the next day instead. Or, more accurately, we tried to book the flights. Air Asia from Phuket to Bangkok was no problem, but we couldn't find a way to book the Laos Airlines portion on-line. I called the Laos Airlines office in both Vientiane (Laos capital) and Bangkok. Don listened while I attempted to make the booking:

"Our name is Myers. M as in Myanmar. No, M. M as in Myanmar. Yes, M. Y. Y as in…as in…Yemen. Y as in Yemen. E. E as in um, as in Egypt. Yes, Egypt. R. R like Russia. No, not L, R. Like Russia. S like Sam. Sam. Sam. Or, S like Syria. Yes, Syria. No, it's Myers. Myers. M y e r s. M y e r s. No, Myers." Big sigh, and then, "Myers. M as in Myanmar. Y as in….. "

In the end we got a booking number, but they wouldn't take payment over the phone. I asked the woman in Bangkok (whose English was a smidgen better than the woman in Vientiane), "If we arrive in Bangkok at 8:05am, will we have enough time to find the Laos Airlines desk, pay for our tickets, and make the flight at 10:30am to Luang Prabang?".

"Yes.", she said, "Just look for transit lounge. Transit lounge. Don't go out through security. Pay for ticket at transit lounge."

Ok, no problem. We packed our luggage for the ten-day trip in tiny suitcases so we wouldn't have to check anything - leaving the laptop behind (a huge concession). Then we got up at 3:30am (ugh!...awful working memories of getting up early for 6:05am flights out of Buffalo on cold and rainy Monday mornings), found our taxi driver waiting patiently for us at the marina gate, and got to Phuket's airport in plenty of time for our 6:30am flight. No one else seemed to be awake at the time except for a few bleary-eyed unsmiling Russians headed for home. We landed in Bangkok on time at 8:05am and scurried off the plane with all our luggage in search of the Lao Airlines transit lounge. Bangkok's airport is big. Huge, really. We eventually swallowed our pride and asked twice where the transit lounge was. We were directed to the Lao Airlines ticket counter outside security. Oh no! Our instructions were not to go outside security! We went out anyway and found the ticket counter. The agent there took no time at all to tell us we had no booking and the flight was full.

"No booking?" I said, in near panic mode.

"Booking was canceled because you no pay 48 hours in advance!"

"But we were told we could pay today!"

"No pay! No booking! Talk to sales counter!" She shooed us away to the tiny Lao Airlines sales cubicle across the aisle.

There we encountered a very accommodating agent who told us kindly, "Come back one hour before flight take off. I put you on stand-by. Flight is full, but maybe some seat be available. Come back 9:30." We went back at 9:30, and two seats were available. We have a sneaking suspicion that we really did have a booking and the two seats we ended up getting were actually ours to begin with….if only we had been able to find the mysterious transit lounge before heading out through security. Or perhaps our booking was under the name Myels or some other equally interesting mutation of Myers. Anyway, by the time our tickets were issued, it was darn close to 10:30 and we still had to get through immigration and security, and ride the shuttle bus to the airplane. Never fear! The mean agent at the check-in counter became our best friend (once we had our tickets), and arranged for us and another stand-by couple to receive VIP status. We were stickered (round yellow Lao Airlines stickers were affixed to our chests with our destination printed in large, bold letters) and personally escorted by a series of three different people through the short version of immigration and security and then guided onto the proper shuttle bus. We made it with about five minutes to spare. Excellent! And to think we would have missed out on the whole VIP treatment thing if we had our tickets ahead of time.

Imagine our surprise when we boarded the small twin engine prop plane and found it was filled with American tourists. Geez, we didn't think anyone went to Laos, let alone a planeload of Americans. When you're used to being surrounded by accents of every kind, it's entirely strange to suddenly hear nothing but American accents. Hey, and we all do have an accent (much as we like to think we don't).

Anyway, the point of this whole story is to describe to you the immediate impression we had of Laotians. Here it is: they don't smile. At least they don't smile easily. Our flight attendant (and there was only one), didn't smile. Not even the slightest upturned twitch for the full two hours. We thought maybe she was atypical, or perhaps didn't like her job. Nope, not true. The more Laotians we met, the more we found they didn't smile. At first they seemed hostile - all these unsmiling people - but later we realized they are just really, really reserved. Quiet. Shy. Laid back. It's not a bad thing. Just different.

The unsmiling Russians, however, remain a mystery.

Luang Prabang.

The name Luang Prabang means 'The City of the Great Buddha', which refers to an ancient golden Buddha image said to be given to the Laotian king by his royal Khmer relatives in Angkor, Cambodia. The golden Buddha image still exists, and we got a glimpse of it in a dark, guarded storage area attached to what used to be the Royal Palace (and is now the National Museum). Luang Prabang sits above the intersection of the Mekong and Khan Rivers in the center of the northern half of Laos. The first Lao kingdom was based in Luang Prabang in 1353. Two hundred years later the monarchy moved its capital to Vientiane (the current capital), but some form of monarchical power remained in Luang Prabang until 1975 when the communists took over. Over the years the area was attacked or under threat of attack from the Burmese, the Siamese, the Vietnamese and the Chinese Haw. It was this last lot, the Chinese Haw, that caused the weak Luang Prabang monarchy to accept French protection in 1887. From then on, the French ruled, but allowed the Luang Prabang monarchy to carry on. When the Japanese invaded Southeast Asia during WWII, the French lost some of their control in the area, leading to the Laos declaration of independence in 1945. The French tried to hold on until 1954 when their position in Southeast Asia collapsed as a result of their loss to the Vietnamese. After that, the Luang Prabang monarchy ruled until the turbulent '60s and '70's when the Laos communist party, Pathet Lao, came to power in 1975 (more about this ugly time in Laos history in a future entry). It's not clear what happened to the Laos monarchy after 1975. They were imprisoned and certainly died, but the current government has never issued a full report on how or where it happened.

It was the French that built (using Vietnamese workers) Luang Prabang's old city - including the monarchy's Royal Palace. We toured the Royal Palace Museum and found it to be fairly modest (as palaces go), but we did get a kick out of the reception room where gifts from various governments around the world were displayed. Right there in front of us was a particularly ugly commemorative statue from President Nixon complete with embedded moon rocks. We are proud to say it was the only moon rock gift on display (most of the other gifts were much less unique - boring old silver tea sets and the like). The old city is now a UNESCO World Heritage site (listed in 1995), which means many of the old buildings have been preserved or reconstructed under a strict architectural code, and the lovely French colonial ambiance lives on. It's a beautiful place with orderly streets, beautifully constructed (or re-constructed) hotels, and shops and restaurants peppered around lots of Buddhist temples. Laos opened up to tourism only as recently as 1989, and although there are a few places within the country, including Luang Prabang, that routinely deal with a steady stream of tourists, it's generally not a place overrun with visitors - a relief after some of our experiences in the Phuket area of Thailand. To us, Luang Prabang felt like a smaller (only 30,000 people live here), quainter, statelier French colonial version of Chiang Mai in Thailand. Luang Prabang has the same solemn Buddhist atmosphere, but at night it doesn't have the raucous streets full of bars and bar girls like Chiang Mai. Speaking of which, it is illegal for a foreigner (male or female) to have sex with a Laotian unless they are married. We decided this must be the Laos way of avoiding the creation of a sex trade industry like Thailand's thriving underworld.

We stayed three nights in Luang Prabang, and could easily have stayed longer. Michael and Jackie did just about all the planning for our trip, and picked the perfect hotel for our stay here. It is perched at the end of town, right at the confluence of the two rivers. The hotel is owned by a Swedish gentleman who traveled to Laos about ten years ago, fell in love with the place, and decided to stay and apply his hotelier expertise to Luang Prabang. He built the hotel's series of two-story buildings using one of the UNESCO architects. As a result, the hotel fully embraces the French colonial style using lots of Laos teak. We were completely pampered with outdoor breakfast overlooking the Mekong, cake and tea throughout the day, and a wine happy hour for new arrivals. At the happy hour, we met an American writer working on an article for National Geographic, another American with his family on holiday from his job at the embassy in Vientiane, and another American couple who ended up sharing dinner with Don and I and Michael and Jackie that night. No shortage of Americans around here.

Oh - and did I mention is was cool in Laos? Jeans-wearing cool? It only makes sense since it was the middle of winter and we were 14 degrees latitude further north (~800 miles) than Langkawi, Malaysia. Ahhhhh, it was good to feel cool again and not have sweat constantly trickling from our eyebrows into our eyes.

This is the view from our hotel. The Nam Khan (foreground) empties into the Mekong, and the city of Luang Prabang exists behind where the photographer is standing. January is the height of the dry season in Laos, so the river levels are low, and the surrounding banks, hills and mountains are mostly brown with bits of green as shown here. Spring and summer bring the wet season, which will transform this scene into a huge mass of river surrounded by lots of green.

Photo courtesy of Michael.

Lunch by the Mekong. Per the UNESCO rules, there are no buildings on the river banks, only river boat docks or restaurants like this one. This isn't the best picture, but this tree looked so alive draped with all those vines that we thought at any moment it might uproot itself and take a little stroll around town.

The famous buffalo (water buffalo) sausages drying in the sun along Luang Prabang's main street. We ate some of these (or others like them) several times, and they were excellent. The food, in general, was very good. It's not spicy like Thailand's, and not as varied as Vietnam's, but we found the sticky rice and lemongrass flavored dishes to be excellent.

The monks receiving alms (plain rice) from the townspeople at daybreak in front of one of the temples. It is a very solemn occasion (no one speaks) marred only by the number of tourists gathered round taking photos (including me). Watching the monks receive alms every morning is a big attraction in Luang Prabang, but we do wonder how the monks feel about their starring role.

Those giving alms usually kneel on the sidewalk on a special piece of carpet, but this woman perhaps has difficulty kneeling. Note the skirt she is wearing. This is the traditional dress of Laotian women. It is usually made of silk, with a hand-woven pattern along the hem, and is still worn almost universally throughout the country (as was strenuously encouraged by the government in the '70's and '80's).

Many of the monks are young as you can see in these photos. The beauty of becoming a Buddhist monk is that you don't have to remain one for the rest of your life. Most Buddhist men have spent some time (as little as a few days or a week) as a monk. When we asked one of our drivers if he was ever a monk, he said, "Twice. Once for two weeks and a another time for a few days." We love that the Buddhist religion appears to be so….so practical.

Note that no one is smiling.

Photo courtesy of Michael.

One of Luang Prabang's temples with market stalls in the foreground. The construction is very similar to that of Thailand's temples, but even so, they are uniquely Lao. Things aren't quite as fancy here in Laos, but there is still plenty of gold leaf to go around.