Day 11 -- Laos
The only thing that prevented leaving Hanoi from being the biggest bummer of my life was that we were going to Luang Prabang.
Linh and Nam picked us up painfully early to head to the airport (we’d flown into a small regional airport but were flying out of the big international airport) and we said friendly goodbyes before heading into the hurly burly of getting through security. Holly is a very experienced world traveler and views negotiating lines in developing countries as psychological warfare. She got through the line and to the gate about 20 minutes ahead of the rest of us.
We landed at the tiny airport in Luang Praban, Laos, a little before noon and were met by our next guide and driver, Fanh and Phut. Fanh made a terrific first impression -- he was funny and low key and most important, made it clear that the very first thing were were going to do was eat. A big bowl of delicious noodles served by a kind lady in her open front room and we were in love with Laos.
We spent the afternoon exploring the Royal Palace complex and the Wat Xiengthong temple. You’re probably thinking “more royal palaces and temples? Isn’t this getting old?” Nope! These two places are the most absurdly gorgeous, preposterously elaborate, hallucinatory, dreamlike fairytale wonders imaginable. If the word for the historical and religious sites we’d visited in Vietnam was “impressive,” the word for Luang Prabang’s architecture treasures is “fantastic” (in the true sense of that word).
As is the case with so many places we’d visited, there were newer things built on top of or next too older things. The Royal Palace was built during the French colonial period in 1904. On the same grounds, the sumptuously gilded Haw Pha Bang temple -- looking like it’s been there forever -- was built in 2006. And Wat Xiengthong dates from 1559.
The Palace is elegant with a deep open hall across the front, spare but appealing rooms for the royal family, and a great hall that takes your breath away. It’s painted a deep red, with gilt trim and furnishings and every wall is covered with beautiful, whimsical mosaic pictures of people and animals doing ordinary things, like children’s drawings turned into jewels. Sadly, you’re not allowed to take photographs (though people obviously have -- I found a few on Google).
The Palace is a little sad -- it was built by King Sisavong Vong and inherited by his son. But they were the only two kings to use it -- in 1975, the royal family was deposed and (as Wikipedia rather ominously says) sent to re-education camps. (A side note -- Fanh, who is a very upbeat person, spoke highly of the current government in Laos.)
Just up the road, Wat Xiengthong ups the ante on the bejeweled gorgeousness -- the deep red paint with colored glass mosaics is repeated on the exterior walls of one of the temple buildings and the afternoon sun made it almost unreal.
The Wat is a Buddhist temple with several buildings, some older, some very recent. But each structure is elaborately ornamented with colored glass, mirror chips, gold leaf or intricate carvings. In contrast, the interior of the temple is simpler, keeping focus on the many statues of Buddha filling the sanctuary. Fanh was a monk at this temple for more than a decade (starting at about age 10). He was visibly emotional about what a good place it was, and how much the (now deceased) abbot had meant to him.
Each time we’d visited a religious site in Vietnam, we’d been asked to take off our shoes. And Tuan and Linh let us know the day before if we were going somewhere that merited respectful attire (meaning no bare shoulders or knees for either men or women, and no cleavage for those of us for whom that’s an issue). But it was immediately clear that in Laos, this is taken more seriously. Wat Xiengthong is a tourist attraction, and there are plenty of tourists snapping pictures and wandering around exclaiming about it. But it’s a deeply religious place, too.
At 4 p.m., three or four monks entered a little structure with open sides fitted with metal bars in which hung a massive drum. They beat out a very musical rhythm, two taking turns pounding the big drum and the others working smaller drums. Because all the temples in town -- and there are lots -- do the same, you can hear the drums everywhere. It was hypnotic and eerie.
Luang Prabang is small so we were at Maison Dalabua -- our home in Laos for the next three days -- in just a few minutes. Stylish, comfortable rooms set in lush gardens with a beautiful pool just outside our doors, it was another gem. The industrial chic bathrooms managed to slightly echo the Hanoi Hilton, but you know, in a good way. And the restaurant is possibly the most beautiful dining setting in the world -- wooden walkways wind between lily ponds to the wide open rooms, silk lanterns and colorful parasols are suspended from the ceilings, luxurious cushioned banquets perch at the water’s edge -- and the food was excellent, if pricier than we’d gotten way too used to. We didn’t linger over dinner, though -- we had an early wake up call tomorrow.
