Sometimes it is fate, sometimes luck. I'm going to put this one down to a bit of both. After saying goodbye to our Halong Bay buddies at the side of the highway outside Hanoi we jumped into a taxi that took us to the airport hoping that we could catch a plane to the Lao Shangri La...or Luang Prabang. Travelling here was a breeze, if a little uncommon. Taxi to airport, ticket from Lao Airlines and then a short hop with more good inflight food and entertainment courtesy of the two wee laddies sitting behind us. Landed, thanked our luck for being at the back of the plane and therefore first off, straight into the building with terminal written over it, up to official, paperwork filled out and $72 later we were handing beautifully inlaid visas to the friendly immigration guy before picking up a map walking out of the terminal and into a taxi to the only guest house we knew the name of. From the confines of Hanoi to the firm but comfy bed of the Lao Wooden House, Lao Beer in hand, took 100 minutes and not one of them had we planned but each one of them was justified as this next entry will testify.
Laos is a mixed country. Neutral in the Viet Nam war it nevertheless has been the most bombed country in the world, ever. With over a quarter of a billion stealthy little pieces of ordinance being dropped into its pristine jungle. The downside of which is that the US has no idea where they were dropped and the Lao people have no idea what to do with them. They just call then uxo's because unexploded ordinance is too much of a mouthful to be said with the alarming regularity that is required. People are losing limbs, eyes or their lives on all too regular a basis and the very few centres that do exist to put shattered humans back together are crammed, under funded and forgotten by almost the entire world.
That being said, the country and Luang Prabang are beautiful, happy and most certainly getting there. In the past 10 years there has been an explosion of another kind. Tourism is flourishing and with it poverty is decreasing. Not that being poor is causing unhappiness. Everywhere you go "sabbadii" (hello) rings out and children wave with their exhuberant greetings. If Japan is a country that ripples with technology and societal advancement, and Korea is a country that shows how 40 years can transform a nation, then Vietnam shows a how transition to freetrade and tourism can have a bumpy ride and Laos is a country that by its very nature wishes to hold onto its traditions but is struggling to cope with the pressure of bigger brothers and the promises of riches, that 15 years ago would have been unimaginable.
The trouble with this picture is that it won't be in the interests of the country in the long term. And though we might praise the government for bringing much needed development and cash into the country, they will be judged by the scars left behind. The biggest threats that I saw are the following:
logging by the Chinese, Casinos by the Chinese, land clearing by the Chinese and Koreans. I'll explain more later, but right now I was so glad that Corinne and I managed to see what we did when we did. We'll be coming back asap, before it is all gone.
The city/town of Luang Prabang is a mecca of Buddist temples, with grand buildings, guilded in gold and as ornate as any art you can imagine on most streets. They vary in size and tourist access. The image at the top of the page was after climbing about 350 steps to the top of the steep sided hill that dominates the town's steet map. Upon it is a beautiful shrine and temple. The view is amazing as the below panoramic hopefully shows. The only problem, unlike much of the town was the abundance of litter on the hill. In part you can blame the town, there are very few bins available for litter, but when you consider who is also likely to be dropping it, you can't help feel a sense of shame for the tourism that has come and changed the way this sleepy, devoutly Buddist town has to be.
We spent much of the rest of the day looking through the temples and marvelling at the mixtures of architecture. Clearly french colonial but within the mix an abundance of Lao influences. The wooden framing, the sloping roofs and single room first floors. There are many guest houses all around the town, so many in fact that it is hard to imagine that during the dry season, when many more tourists flock to the area, that they could possibly all be filled. In 2005 there were about 60 guest houses, in the past 6 years that number has gone up to over 280, and I suspect there are many more that open only for the season. Cuisine took up a good portion of the day and the local delicacy of fish Laap was consumed three times during our stay. A wonderful blend of minced fish, sping onion, mint, lime juice, green or red chilli and another herb that we failed to recognise. I am sure there were many other subtle flavours that were added to encompass each delicious mouthful, but for the timebeing, we were going on trying to recognising ingredients. Lao cuisine, like Vietnamese is very variable depending on the locale but also each restaurant had a chef who would create suble differences. Each meal was also to come with your choice of boiled or sticky rice. For sure the favourite was sticky rice. Steamed in a bamboo pot with non of the starches removed into water the rice would form a very sticky mixture that would be pinched out of the pot with the right hand, though we tended to use me tu (chopsticks).
Two places of particular mention, one for location, the other for the food are Tum Tum Cheng's and Diuy Sabbi. Tum Tum's was opened by an ex Marriott Budapest Chef who travelled extensively and then came back to Laos to open a restaurant and cullinary school. To date he/she has taught over 20,000 students. Personally I am glad, teach more, this cuisine should be everywhere. The Tum Tum secret soup was to die for and if I hadn't tried to be a hero by eating a whole red chilli, the Fish Laap would have been sensational.
Diuy Sabbi was an entirely different experience and I'm not going to lie, we went there for the 2-1 cocktails that a flyer picked up in town was offering. To be honest, the cocktails were tasty, but very small, more like large shots. The food was good though and the setting was incredible. Overlooking the Mekong river, wrapped in teak and bamboo the place had it's own air of relaxation that we've not experienced before. Lounging on scatter cushions at floor level, your body moulds its own tranquility. The music was the only let down as the Jack Johnson album on repeat quickly grew tiring. It was the perfect place to escape the 2pm monsoon and rain was a suitable excuse for soaking up 3 hours there. Did I mention they also do massage!
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