Luang Prabang: A pig in Gucci
After being well and truly off of the tourist radar in Chiang Mai we caught a plane and were thrust into the tourist mecca of Luang Prabang. The one positive of a place full of tourists is that they follow each other around like happy little lambs and if you make the effort it's easy to find a peaceful spot.
Take the airport for example. Everyone leaves the arrivals hall and lines up at the taxi desk outside, happy to pay $5 for a 3km ride into town. We tried to barter a bit but with so many willing customers they wouldn't budge. We walked off along the road and found a chap outside who took us to our guesthouse for $2.
Luang Prabang is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places we have seen. An intensely relaxed and calm feel with monks wandering it's streets and houses and restaurants perched on the banks of the Mekong. There is so much to see and do but simply sitting and doing nothing at all is good enough. At night the quiet streets tranform into colourful markets and the bars come alive.
Luang Prabang caters for those wanting the finer things in life with gourmet restaurants and places that will rub oils and herbs on something if you ask them to. A closer look however reveals a raw character that is far more refreshing but slightly disturbing at the same time. The local food market sells the usual spread of fruits and veg but if you explore the meat section you will find parts of animals that you never knew existed, mounds of jelly-like congealed buffalo blood, packets of bile and a smell that would bring a tear to a rhino's eye.
On our last evening in town we had positioned ourselves at our favourite sundowner spot and were sipping on a cold Beerlao when a longboat pulled up below us. A beautiful scene for a minute or 2 but when a huge live pig was thrown off the front of the boat, legs tied together, the atmosphere changed somewhat. As a couple of chaps carried the poor squeeling creature off upside down on a stick into town I couldn't help feeling that even though we were fairly comfortable and at home we were somewhere very different. Like a lot of the T-shirts in SE Asia say 'same same but different'.
Take the airport for example. Everyone leaves the arrivals hall and lines up at the taxi desk outside, happy to pay $5 for a 3km ride into town. We tried to barter a bit but with so many willing customers they wouldn't budge. We walked off along the road and found a chap outside who took us to our guesthouse for $2.
Luang Prabang is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places we have seen. An intensely relaxed and calm feel with monks wandering it's streets and houses and restaurants perched on the banks of the Mekong. There is so much to see and do but simply sitting and doing nothing at all is good enough. At night the quiet streets tranform into colourful markets and the bars come alive.
Luang Prabang caters for those wanting the finer things in life with gourmet restaurants and places that will rub oils and herbs on something if you ask them to. A closer look however reveals a raw character that is far more refreshing but slightly disturbing at the same time. The local food market sells the usual spread of fruits and veg but if you explore the meat section you will find parts of animals that you never knew existed, mounds of jelly-like congealed buffalo blood, packets of bile and a smell that would bring a tear to a rhino's eye.
On our last evening in town we had positioned ourselves at our favourite sundowner spot and were sipping on a cold Beerlao when a longboat pulled up below us. A beautiful scene for a minute or 2 but when a huge live pig was thrown off the front of the boat, legs tied together, the atmosphere changed somewhat. As a couple of chaps carried the poor squeeling creature off upside down on a stick into town I couldn't help feeling that even though we were fairly comfortable and at home we were somewhere very different. Like a lot of the T-shirts in SE Asia say 'same same but different'.
posted by Brad at 14:25
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