Luang Prabang -- a Lao Dream

For me, without question, the best part of L.P. is its temples: there are seemingly dozens, all rather different, all filled with an ethereal calm I've rarely experienced. To stroll through the precincts of a wat is to enter another world. The buildings, the saffron-robed monks, the sound of the temple gongs, the smell of joss sticks wafting through the air, it is all magical.

Another favorite is to wander along the river, stopping at the odd snack stall or riverside restaurant and watch the slow progress of the river and the boats that ply along it.

Quick Tips:

Don't be spooked by the rainy season in July and August: L.P. is just as charming during a rain storm as it is in the sun.

Best Way To Get Around:

There are three viable ways to get to L.P.: Take ferry or a fast boat on the Mekong, fly in -- directly -- from Chiang Mai (Thailand), or take a domestic flight up from the capital, Vientiane. My vote is for the flight from Chiang Mai, either the nonstop to Luang Prabang or the other one to Vientiane.

The Villa Santi, which was a residential palace of a Lao princess, is a charming place to stay: rather colonial in style, there is a columned portico on the front with a restaurant on balcony beneath it. This is a wonderful place to sit of an evening sipping a glass of wine or a gin and tonic.

Rooms are spacious with polished wood floors, comfortable beds, and air conditioning. If you can, book room #21, which is on a corner and has two windows, which can both be opened for some cross ventilation if you don''t like the A.C.

Service is excellent, prompt, and unobtrusive.

Luang Prabang has a central street market that is open mostly in the mornings. The usual cacaphony of any SE Asian market prevails; people haggle over everything, but smile as they do it. For a westerner, it's a sensual banquet: sights, colors, smells, sounds, some familiar, many utterly unknown and often bizarre. There is no smelly fish market, but the meat market can give one's nose pause -- as can rotting fruit that has been left on the ground... But nevermind! If you want "clean", stay home, and head for the mall.

There are some very unusual things for sale: odd shaped baskets, taw kraw balls, which are made of raffia; fish baskets, and funny hats, not to mention little stuffed figures with pom-poms that aren't really dolls and aren't really anything clearly identifiable, but fun all the same.

There must be at least two dozen important wats, or Buddhist temples, in L.P. I became addicted to them the first time I set foot in one in Thailand years ago. The Lao variety, however, are my favorite. Colors are not so livid and crass as in Thailand; there is less gold; and the eaves of the temple enclosure droop low to the ground, creating a quite remarkable visual effect.

Unhappily, I have a lousy memory for names -- especially names in what is for me an essentially unpronouncable language.

This is a continuation of the previous page. Since this is an essentially visual experience, I won't ramble on about wats. Just check out the pictures, and enjoy!

Visitors should be aware that Laos is not Thailand, or Malaysia, or Singapore. It is much less well-developed, having barely emerged from a Communist past. People are poorer, the sanitation is not as good, the chances of getting sick are higher. All that said, it is (possibly) the only country in SE Asia that bares any resemblance to what the region once was: culturally unique. To me, it reminds me a lot of the Thailand of the late 1960s, when I was first there.

Visas: Nationals of countries with money, i.e., the West and Japan, can enter the country without a visa at either the Freedom Bridge opposite Nong Khai (Thailand) or at Vientiane Airport. For US $50, cash they stamp in the visa and off you go. As I recall it was valid for 14 days. If you want to stay longer, visas may be extendable in the country; I would check at a Lao Embassy to make sure, however. Whether it is now possible to get a visa at Luang Prabang Airport, I don't know. It would be worth checking. Otherwise, you''ll have to get it in advance, and that means, almost inevitably, a stop in Bangkok.

Land transport:
The highway between Vientiane and Luang Prabang is still not finished; much of it is only dirt or gravel, so travel over it during the rainy season is problematic at best. Additionally, there are still occasional bandit/guerilla attacks on trucks and buses; hence, it's wiser to fly in or arrive on a Mekong ferry.

Food:
Most restaurants seem to be pretty safe; street stalls are very likely less so. I didn't take any chances. Having said that, Lao food is pretty interesting. I had a quite remarkable fish concoction that was rather like a French terrine that had been steamed in a banana leaf. It's not as fabulously hot as Thai food, either, so you aren't as likely to feel as if your head was about to explode after biting into an especially nasty Thai chili.

Because of Laos' French colonial past, you find baguettes and brioches almost everywhere, which is absolutely amazing considering where one is...