Luang Prabang: Traveling Back in Time

Strolling through the sleepy streets of Luang Prabang, Laos is like being transported in time.  For me, I was living in the 1942 classic movie Casablanca, wandering through colonial hotels and bars replete with wooden shuttered windows and courtyards filled with lush green palm trees and exotic plants. Ben felt as if he was in old Havana, Cuba with the dated cars, dilapidated sidewalks and children riding on rusty bicycles.  With a world moving so fast, it is incredibly invigorating to be in place so firmly planted in the best of times.  Luang Prabang has naturally attracted tourists but its UNESCO world heritage status has prevented the crumminess that tourism has brought to other Asian cities. All store signs are carved in wood and the narrow streets make passage by tourist bus impossible.

On our first night in Luang Prabang we climbed the steps to Phousy Hill to watch the sunset over the city and listen to the monks bang their gongs and pray in their temples; there are over sixty in Luang Prabang.  As we climbed down the winding steps, the light changed and each sight was different from the next, from glowing motorbike dotted streets to the clay colored snaking Mekong. The night market was beginning to buzz below, packed with local vendors selling buddha heads, silk scarves, intricately woven bedspreads and wall hangings with depictions of hmong village life. I wanted to purchase everything in sight but my hunger kept me going past the market to a small alleyway lined with food vendors. We opted for fresh spring rolls and grilled fish stuffed with lemongrass so good we returned for the next night’s meal. Despite eating out every meal for the past two weeks, I haven’t felt the revulsion to prepared food that I’ve felt on other travels simply because everything tastes so home-made. When you sit at a roadside stall, you are eating the same food a village woman is feeding to her family.

The next day we rented a motorbike to ride to the Kuang Si waterfalls about 20 km away from town. When we started riding, we realized both the speedometer and fuel gauge were broken, meaning that we didn’t know how much fuel we had until the motorbike sputtered to a stop in the middle of a country road. We had to drag the bike up the hills and coast on it down the hills until we found the nearest village that had a liter or two of petrol in old coke bottles. Luckily the detour was short and we continued on our way past rice paddies and villages, stopping only for a herd of water buffalo that passed the street. The waterfalls were gushing from the recent rains yet the pools of water still retained their glassy greenish-blue from the limestone mountains from which they cascaded.  Yet the ride to the falls was every bit as beautiful as the falls themselves, and I’m beginning to realize that the journey is just as good as the destination in Asia; perhaps a truism for life as well.

The next morning we awoke at dawn to join our guesthouse owner in offering alms to 300 or so monks and novices (monks-in-training).  Monks are not permitted to work so they depend on their local village to feed them. Every morning, they collect balls of rice, cookies and money from the villagers who line the street as they walk quietly past. Hot food is brought to each temple following the ceremony. Monks are only permitted to eat until noon, after which they must fast until the next day. Below is a short video that documents the alms offering… in the rain, of course.

Later that day we visited the national palace where the king and queen of Laos resided during the French occupation until they were forced to flee in 1975 when the revolution began.  Their private residences remain almost untouched since they fled. We kept walking through the town stopping to visit temples and chat with the monks and novices studying in the courtyards. They were eager to practice their English and ask us about life in America. It was a perfect way to explore the many temples we had not yet seen while getting a glimpse of monastic life.  Many of the novices (19 and under) have cell phones, watch TV, and one even proclaimed his desire to leave the order once he finished high school.  We spent another day walking, eating and admiring this beautiful city until it was time for the next stop: Vang Vieng.