Vagabonding Field Report: UNESCO World Heritage Site, Luang Prabang, Laos

Cost/day:

$30/day per person

What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen lately?

A stroll through the Luang Prabang morning market brought something different to my senses every time. One morning, I saw a woman with a pile of chickens on the ground for sale. I thought the chickens were dead, but one of them started to get up and the woman shushed it like a dog and it laid back down. A little further down, a large tub of massive frogs awaited purchase next to huge cuts of fish and pig faces staring back at me. Most of the food lay on the ground on tarps.

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Describe a typical day:

After breakfast, homeschool and work are completed in the morning, we head out to do things like swim in the Mekong, visit the unexploded ordinances center, take a hands-on class in traditional weaving and natural dyeing or rice farming. We did a lot of wandering around the beautiful, quiet town just getting lost and finding little gems as well as riding a motorbike on the outskirts of town.

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Describe an interesting conversation you had with a local:

It was interesting talking with our guide from the rice farming course. He graduated from college, spoke English very well and told us he could have chosen to work in an office. In fact, for a time he had worked in an office. But he grew up near the farm and the idea of being able to work outside everyday was more appealing to him than sitting in an office, even if it meant he would be paid less. 

What do you like about where you are? Dislike?

There really is a lot to like about the town. It’s one of the very few places in Laos where the old French colonial architecture survived the war. Its position at the confluence of two rivers, one of which is the mighty Mekong, provides stunning scenery. It is a great size for my tastes, meaning it is large enough that there are good markets and a lot of restaurants but not so large that it is too busy, loud or polluted. The high concentration of monasteries in a small area makes Luang Prabang teeming with orange-robed monks. We enjoyed hearing the morning and evening drumming at the temples, and watching the novice monks playfully pushing each other from the cliffs into the rivers. Creaky bamboo foot-bridges will lead you across the rivers to simpler villages nearby. Also, if your Southeast Asian travels leave you hankering for croissants, French cheese, or a good glass of wine, this is the place to find it.

I disliked that it was touristy. This is what happens with all UNESCO world heritage sites, so it is to be expected. Coming from other, less touristy parts of Laos, it just took a little getting used to.

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Describe a challenge you faced:

I truly cannot think of a single thing that I found challenging about Luang Prabang. Everything is located within walking or biking distance, and the tourist infrastructure is so well put together that I barely had to plan anything. I guess if I had to pick anything it was dealing with the threat of having our motorbike stolen. Luang Prabang has a significant problem with motorbike thefts, so always having to find an appropriate way to lock up the bike and also worrying about it while away from it, was really the only thing that could even be considered a challenge.

What new lesson did you learn?

A lesson I had reaffirmed is just how everyone’s sense of place is different and in reality cannot be trusted. Not to say people when describing a place will be dishonest; rather, that their take on a place can be determined by so many factors that may not apply to you. We had a lot of people tell us not to go to Laos, that there wasn’t much to see that couldn’t be found elsewhere, that the infrastructure was poor, that our time would be better spent going to this or that country. Of course there were others who told us it was wonderful.

After a month in Laos, though, we fell in love with the place, and will no doubt return again to see the many places we missed on this trip. In fact, it was probably my favorite country in Southeast Asia. The only way to tell if you’re going to like a country  is to go there and experience it yourself.

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Where next?

Siem Reap, Cambodia

 

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Category: Asia, Vagabonding Field Reports

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