Thursday April 20th, 2017- Luang Prabang - UNESCO Gets it Right Again.

When I read the history of Laos, it all gets pretty confusing. The gist of it appears to be that it was one kingdom, then three separate Kingdoms, then was part of Thailand or Siam as it was known then. It seems there was much slavery and forced population movements going on to provide the Siamese and Vietnamese elite with cheap labor. In the mid to late 1800's, the French became interested in the area out of hope that the Mekong River would give them passage to China. There had been revolts against the Siamese, so in 1893 began the process of France taking on Laos as a 'Protectorate', even though it was described as “a depopulated, devastated country”.



These birds from the market may be symbolic of the days of Lao enslavement. Although the birds are in the food market, happily they will not be eaten. They are captured by the vendor and customers buy them to set them free!

Why do I want you to know this? Because you can see the impact of French Colonialism in Luang Prabang architecture, one of the main reasons it was made a World Heritage site by UNESCO. The result is delightful, in spite of the usual third world conglomeration of tuk tuks, street vendors and markets, spotty sidewalks, motorbikes and proliferation of electrical wiring that boggles the mind. While there are many trash cans around, when one looks over the fence, or riverbank, there is much plastic trash, too. Not to mention the unsightly bodies of festering, stinky, dirty water that seems inevitable in these hot parts of the world.

This was a fine example of the type of architecture seen here.

So, what did Luang Prabang have to offer our little group? The first day we enjoyed a walk through the morning market, which is the local's market for food and basic supplies - the usual collection of fabulously fresh-picked that morning greens and fruits, meat and fish cut up in gory ways with a variety of methods used to keep off the flies..

I'm sure the fish is fresh - but I'd want to get there early in the morning, as the day gets hot. Notice the lovely skirt the customer is wearing - it is called a 'sinh', is very elegant and is worn by many women here. It's like a tube skirt that forms a large pleat across one's front, so it can be easily moved around in and is flexible for squatting as shown here.

I loved the look of the sticky rice containers.

Finding donuts at the market was a surprise too. Thank the French!

I know you all would love to select your meat like this! Note the fly!

Not fabric - this is banana leaf - used a lot for wrapping things in and making flower decorations for offerings at the temple.

Note the banana leaves under the fish here.

Some other exotic foods were present and we were instructed not to react with any visible disgust if we saw things that we felt were unsavory as it would be disrespectful.

Following this we stopped at a silversmith shop - one that had a tradition of being the finest as it had supplied the silver offering bowls to the king in the days of royalty. It really was remarkable to see the labor intensive, hands on work that creates the most beautiful of products. The patience and sheer persistence it demands are remarkable.

Working conditions here would not make OSHA happy. It looks like a backyard. Not much in the way of protective clothing.

One man was softening a disc of silver in a fire - using a hand wound bellows to intensify the heat.

This was probably the base of a bowl being worked on - how do you like his seat?

After the disc had been softened, he put it through a wringer-like machine to keep flattening it - then he started hitting it - perhaps to create the lip.

It beats me how this entire hand-crafted process resulted in such a beautiful design. It must take hours and hours of detailed and back breaking work - not to mention enormous patience!

Following this, of course, was a temple - can't tell you it's name. The treat here was to see women coming to use the Buddha washing trough in front of the temple - a feature that is unique to Laos in my experience. It was quite delightful.

This trough is about 12 feet long. I saw a sign calling it a 'hang hod', but can't confirm that in Google. This woman had to climb a few steps to get high enough to reach the trough. She poured the water in one end, then it rolled down to the other. She went and stood under some of the water splashing out at the other end over a grouping of Buddha statues.

The beading on the fabric hanging below the trough was lovely.

I thought the painting on the pillars and the gold filigree was also incredibly intricate.

This representation of the four faces of Buddha actually has non-Buddhist origins. I read that it signifies Buddha's offer to help people in need and grant them their wishes.

Afterwards, I made a quick trip to an ethnographic museum, then the whole group went off to a nearby waterfall -  Kuang Si Falls.

How delightful it was to see beautiful, fresh, clear running water forming tiered swimming pools.

It was cloudy from the dissolved limestone, but had a lovely blue tinge to it.

Most of the group decided to swim, relax and play - but me? Oh no, there was a hill to climb to the top of the waterfall and sadly, my curiosity had to see how high it went! So instead of relaxing and bathing in luxurious coolness, I'm slogging up a very poor quality, slippery steep hill to see the view!

At the top were further pools......

.....and a very convenient viewing platform.

The view from the platform was not that great, but it was fun and I was delighted by the comment from the young Frenchman who passed by, as I was slogging up the very steep and slippery path, saying he hopes he can do the same 'When I'm your age!' I was afraid to ask him how old he thought I was! I don't know how they can figure out I'm old!

One thing about Luang Prabang is the colorful night market. It is an everyday event and a good place to buy tourist trinkets if that's your thing.

Me - I love the fabrics, but sadly I don't trust the fiber content and fair trade practices of the market and unfortunately for my pocketbook buy from higher end stores.

The umbrellas are always fun to see.

Many of the vendors look bored and seem to prefer their cell-phones!

I was hoping to share Luang Prabang with you in one post - but I'm afraid that I had too much fun the rest of the time, so it will take another entry!