Laos: An Asian France

The lovely streets of Luang Prabang

The word we kept using was "quaint".  When our slow boat landed in Luang Prabang, we were greeted with French-inspired buildings and a slow pace on the streets. You could find French bakeries and restaurants on the streets and the tuk-tuk drivers barely harassed us - what a nice change!  Laos was once under French rule, and so much of the city had a very European/Asian feel to it. We absolutely loved it there! And it was always fun to see random passengers from our boat trip walking around, like seeing people you know from your home town.

Here are some scenes from around the city:

This was our guesthouse. So quaint, right?

The best thing to do was go down the main street when the night market came out. Just a long street of tents where women sold their handicrafts. Everything from t-shirts to hand carved wooden objects, to jewelry to linens, and everything in between.

The main point of attraction is the temple that sits in the middle of the city, on top of a high hill. The Buddha that sits in the temple is considered the most sacred one in Laos, and the view from the top is the highest viewpoint in the city. Because it had been a few months since we last climbed a good dome, we were up for the long flight of stairs up the hill.

The temple is that golden spire sitting on top of the mountain

Up we go, past the women selling incense and flowers for the shrine

Tough decision to make

The views at the top did not disappoint! We had a 360 degree view of the city and the Mekong river stretched out below the tall mountains.

An up-close look at the golden spire

Those mountains! There were at least 2 more misty rows of them behind these that you can't see in the picture

We were in Luang Prabang for 5 days, but it felt like 2 weeks! The place was so laid back and lazy that time just crept by. We were there over New Years as well. They had quite a celebration prepared with a huge stage and tables set up in the center of town. Around 9pm we heard music start to blare, and then the power went out. We went and looked down the street and it looked like the whole city was dark! But there were people still singing and drinking and getting rowdy. We decided to head back inside until midnight so we weren't out in the madness and darkness. The power came back on an hour later and unfortunately I fell asleep until I heard fireworks going off at midnight (haha - typical!). Happy New Year!

From Luang Prabang, we had initially intended on going over to northern Vietnam to visit Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. It didn't seem very far away, but soon discovered that we could take a bus there... a 22 hour bus, which means at least 24-26 hours in reality. Nooooooo thanks! The only other option was to fly there, and it was more expensive to do that, than to fly through another city in Laos then on to Bangkok. So Vietnam got the shaft. But we have heard good things about it and would like to visit there on a future trip.

So off we went to the capital city of Vientiane, Laos. The shortest flight of our lives - we took off, were airborne for 5 minutes, and the pilot came on to tell the flight attendants to prepare for landing. Pretty nice!

Another city with French inspired buildings

... and Asian electricians.  The power lines over here never cease to amaze!

Since this was only a stopover city on our way to Bangkok, we were here for only 24 hours. But we did get to see some fun things. One of them was the imitation of the Champs D'Elysees and Arc De Triomphe

 I guess if you tilt your head and squint just right...

 We were leaving Laos in the afternoon, so we were trying to spend all of our Laotian cash. We had the equivalent to about $2.50 left, and were able to climb to the top of the Arch and see a museum. In Europe we would have spend closer to $100 to see the same things!

The Royal Palace at the opposite end of the street

The arch

The informational plaque at the entrance to the arch was pretty funny, basically pointing out that it was incomplete and ugly. We thought it was pretty neat though, and got some good views of the city.

Ceiling of the arch

There were souvenir shops on every floor as you climbed up, selling very dusty trinkets

After the arch we went to a museum that was in the king's old personal temple next to the royal palace. Our guidebook said that if we saw one thing in the city, it should be this museum. So off we went, thinking we would get to see some super old art and culture.

Wrong! Just one room full of glass cases of dusty pots and buddha figures. Oh well, the temple and gardens were nice.

Carved tree trunks sitting in the corner. Not really sure...

We also took a walk by the Mekong river and saw this enormous fellow

A former king was our best guess... commanding troops? Telling the Siamese to stay out?

Behind you!... LOOK OUT!

We thoroughly enjoyed our short stay in Vientiane. Another laid-back city with some serious charm.

Next, we were headed back to Bangkok on our way to the islands. That city cannot be avoided! Of course we had some soft pretzels and saw a movie, but we also visited another site. This time it was a temple that houses the largest solid-gold Buddha ever made.

Brannan at the wat. And what a wat!

Found a friend on the side of the temple

The Buddha was up on the top floor, and they had turned the first 3 floors into a museum. One of the floors was about the Chinese immigrants and we discovered that we were pretty near to Chinatown. The other floor talked about how the golden Buddha was made and brought to the temple. It was actually covered in plaster, they think it was to hide it from looters. Nobody knew it was solid gold until they tried to hoist it up into the temple and a rope broke and dropped the Buddha. A piece of plaster fell off and revealed the gold underneath.

It turned out to be a pretty neat thing to see and learn about.

Since we found out we were near Chinatown, we figured we would check it out. Apparently the real craziness starts in the evening because all the night food stalls come out, but it still pretty much assaulted our senses

The most common gift for New Years is money, so everyone goes and spends their money on gold. We certainly saw evidence of that! Every gold store on the street was packed full of people.

I'll take it! Now how to get the thing home...

We were happy to get to see some fun things during this trip to Bangkok (our 4th I believe?). But we are even MORE happy to be back at the beach! We've since flown to the island of Ko Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.

Even the airport looks island-y

More diving and swimming and beaching to come!