Vacation In Laos- Bombed History, Blooming Future

The Southeast Asian country of Laos has seen an extended bad times during several war affected period. The consistent bombarding shattered the country in many different ways, But things are getting normal and Laos is evolving as a major tourist destination.

Like some tortured human souls, some countries of the world also has to under go the ruthless battering of time and history which leaves a scar on its image and psyche. Laos, a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China has a story to tell with lots of bomb attacks in different turns of history.

 Buddha statue at Vientiane

But, rising from the ashes, Laos has now made its way to become one of the most attractive countries from traveller point of view with lots to do and see. You can start out with a riverboat sail along the water channels of Laos meandering ways through the roadless hamlets, pristine environment and diverse cultures. Or you can head towards the cave series of Vieng Xai, that used to be the shelter fro the locals from aerial bombardment during the 20th-century Indochina wars. Not to be missed the "bomb-shelter caves" that are seated amid dramatic karst outcrops.

The karst cliffs and mountains of Khammuan in central Laos are something that makes vacation a worth in this part of the nation. Turquoise streams, monsoon forests and striking karst topography marks this region that deserves serious mention while talking about the natural resources of Laos. To give your vacation a novel and off the beat touch, you can go out on a bicycle excursion along the streets of the capital- Vientiane. Or if you are night creature, then no other place can better the experience of a night out in the town of Vang Vieng. It has a limestone cliff backdrop that mixes well with the parties in open-air raves-slash-amusement parks and in the clubs.

In addition to all these, former royal capital of Luang Prabang and Si Phan Don are the places that retains the laid back look with lots to offer for some backpacking. Today, Laos has come a long way from its dubious distinction as a tormented destination that it used to be till some time ago.

Destination: Vientiane, Laos

SITUATED on the banks of the mighty Mekong River, sleepy Vientiane is one of the world’s smallest capital cities. To say Vientiane is relaxed is something of an understatement. This is a city that rises late, sleeps early and is lethargic in between.

 Monks in Vientiane, Laos.

However, this is the charm of the Laos capital. Known for its shady streets and crumbling French architecture, people still cook with charcoal and you’ll rarely see a multi-storey building breaking the horizon.

Vientiane has long been a popular stop-off on the Southeast Asia backpacker trail. It also has its fair share of expats who have succumbed to its charms, as well as many expats from neighboring Thailand who travel there to renew their Thai visas. Another large contingent of westerners you’ll see in Vientiane will be NGO or embassy workers.

A Day in the Life

Morning –Early morning Vientiane is, on the face of it, just what you’d expect – sleepy. It’s a great time to wander the streets before the heat of the day sets in and sit back and enjoy a quiet, relaxing coffee. However, if you want to see the other side of Vientiane in the morning visit one of the large, open air, wet markets in town, which are a hive of activity.

Afternoon – Many of Vientiane’s best sights and attractions are all within walking distance of the tourist quarter. The area is dotted with beautiful temples, while the palace and the national museum are also worth a look.

Evening – Watch the sun go down while sitting on the banks of the Mekong with a bottle of the surprisingly good local brew – Beer Lao. Many lazy hours can be happily whiled away ‘Mekong watching’, but it’s worth making that extra effort to sample some of the many excellent eateries around town.

Best of the Rest

Patuxai, or ‘Victory Gate’, is Vientiane’s answer to the Arc de Triomphe, and the highest point in the city. The monument honors the people who died during the fight for independence from France. Patuxai was built in the ‘60s using funds donated by the US to build an airport. Laos used the cash to build the monument instead.

Arguably the pick of the temples in Vientiane is Tat Luang. This is regarded as the most important temple in the country and is the national symbol of Laos. It’s located about a mile north of the city centre.

Hidden Gem - Take in the beautiful countryside surrounding Vientiane with a trip to Buddha Park. This unique spectacle is full of stone statues and offers some great views across the river of neighboring Thailand.

Accommodation - Rooms for the night can be scarce by the early evening so it’s best to get there early or make a reservation. Prices for budget accommodation, like much of the region, are modest. Fifteen or 20 dollars will get you a passable mid-range room, for 40 can get you something a little more luxurious. Most hotels and guesthouses will accept US dollars and Thai baht, as well as the Laos kip.

Vientiane at Night

Dining - Lao food can be a goal well worth pursuing and not as easily obtained as one might think. The food sold in the English language restaurants is often an imitation, dumbed down for the western pallet even in those restaurants professing to specialize in Lao food. For the real thing, go to street vendors and sawdust-on-the-floor type establishments. It’s much cheaper too. If Western food is more your thing, Vientiane has become much more cosmopolitan in recent years and you will have plenty of international food options.

Nightlife – Vientiane is sleepy by day and sleepy by night. By law most bars shut down very early – 11.30pm. There are places to go out and have a drink, maybe even listen to music, but compared to the likes of Thailand, it’s fairly dead at night.

A young Lao girl takes a ride in a vegetable cart in one of Vientiane's many morning markets

Retail Therapy - The most famous market in Vientiane, Dalat Sao, or Morning Market in English, is slowly succumbing to the wrecking ball and the plate glass, air conditioned shopping mall, so it’s well worth a look before it’s gone. Downstairs are row after row of small shops selling traditional Lao silk weaving and some very good handicrafts. Upstairs are the gold stores and cheap clothing. Morning is a misnomer in this case as the market doesn’t even really open up until after 8am and shuts down at 4pm.

Across the street to the south (next door to the central post office) is the Ethnic Handicrafts Cooperative. Mostly Hmong owned and orientated towards the visiting overseas Hmong, it has the largest selection of hill-tribe handicrafts of all ethnicities for sale in Laos. Don’t expect colorful displays or friendly English speaking sales people. It is not tourist-oriented, but that only adds to the fun.

Transport

Getting there & away – There are regular flights into Vientiane from many of the major cities in the region and the rise of the budget airline has made these a whole lot cheaper. If you are traveling by land, there are regular services to and from cities in China, Vietnam and northern Thailand.

Getting around - To get around most people use tuktuks. They tend to overcharge and bargaining isn’t as important as knowing the going rate in the first. Probably the best option is to rent a motorcycle ,though beware; the rules of the road are not enforced with any real gusto. In truth, the town is so small many people simply walk to wherever they are going.

10 of the most beautiful places to visit in Laos

One of the most rugged, unspoiled countries on earth, Laos is like a lost world that has breath-taking mountain vistas, colorful mountain tribes, and majestic Buddhist temples around every corner. And yet even with its isolation and challenging terrain, it has also inherited a rich, tragic history as the most bombed country in the world.

Whatever you’re looking for on your trip to Southeast Asia, you can find it in Laos – but where to start? Let’s take a stab at identifying the most beautiful places to visit in Laos:

1. Luang Prabang

A trip to Laos is simply not complete without a visit to one of the most well-preserved cities in all of Asia and a visit to the beautiful Luang Prabang is like stepping into another century. A treasure trove of old Buddhist temples and lush landscapes the city is elegantly nestled between the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers in the Northern Laos mountains.

The real draw – however – is the overall feel and the pace of life. Stroll through the town just soaking it in, as villagers transport goods on bicycles, or rise to the early morning bells and watch  processions of saffron-robed monks

A guide to holidaying in Laos

For those who want to experience unspoilt Asia, Laos is about as close as you can get. Life here has continued in much the same way as it has for hundreds of years; the countryside is pristine, the culture is rich and the locals are among the friendliest in the world.

1. Culture
Although the country has only a small population, Lao culture is not only distinct but also extremely diverse, with at least 48 different ethnic groups There are a number of cultural idiosyncrasies that visitors to Laos should observe. This includes greeting others with your palms together and a slight bow of the head, and removing your shoes when entering a religious building or someone’s home. It is also good practice to dress discretely, especially when visiting religious monuments in Laos.

 2. Main attractions
Many people come to Laos to experience the laid-back lifestyle, but there are plenty of incredible and relatively unknown attractions that leave visitors in awe.
The ancient capital, Luang Prabang, is a World Heritage site famous for its historic temples and beautiful setting. Meanwhile the country’s modern day capital, Vientiane, is home to the national symbol, the gilded stupa of Pha That Luang. The mind-boggling Plain of Jars region near Phonsaven is also a must-see for tourists, with its mysterious jar-like relics scattered across the fields. There are also plenty of options for adventure travellers including Vang Vieng and Luang Namtha.

 Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang

3. Getting around
There are plenty of ways to get around Laos, whether it be for the pleasure of seeing the countryside, or about getting from A to B. More than 4600km of navigable rivers meander through Laos, with the longest and most important route being the Mekong river..

4. Cuisine 
Lao cuisine can best be described as fresh, spicy and often quite bitter. Rice is the staple, with raw vegetables and fresh herbs also frequently used. The national dish is laap, which is a kind of salad made with minced meat, mixed herbs, plenty of spice, lime juice and blistering amounts of chilli. Another favourite is tam maak hung, a spicy green papaya salad dressed with fermented crab and an intense fish sauce. There is also plenty of imported food, with French baguettes stuffed with pate, and foe noodles from China being popular snacks.
The national drink, Beerlao, distinguishable by its yellow logo and tiger-head silhouette, can be found everywhere and has reached an almost cult status among travellers. Another popular drink is Lao kaafeh (coffee), grown on the Bolaven Plateau in the country’s south. Travellers should steer clear of the tap water, though, and buy the bottled water instead.

5. When to visit
The best time to visit most of Laos is between November and February, when the rain eases and the climate is comfortable. This time also represents the peak tourist and festival season and it’s advisable to book ahead. November is the best time for those wanting to travel extensively by river, as the flooding has usually subsided but the river levels are still high.

 6. Safety 
Despite being one of the poorer nations of the world, Laos is a very safe place to travel around. Petty crime such as bag snatching is a bit of a problem in the capital Vientiane, but is not widespread. Also, clients should be made aware that it is a legal requirement to carry an identification document or passport at all times, and fines for not having one for presentation on demand can be high.

Trekking in Laos – What to Expect

The one thing everybody should, and most people do, when in Laos is go trekking. I don’t just mean a little jaunt in the woods. I mean a proper 2-3 days hike through forests, waterfalls, banana plantations and into the daily life of two thirds of the country.

If there’s one thing that Laos has that’s unique to the world is its rural villages, which have remained largely unchanged throughout much of modern history. To get a good feel of the real Laos you’ve got to head out into the countryside on one of the many available treks. The makeup of these tours is similar: usually 2-3 days, beginning with light trekking, ending up in a rural village for the evenings, where you’ll likely sleep in homestays or a basic longhouse, be able to watch or partake in village activities and have local food. Most involve either a dance presentation or handicraft explanation and then you’ll be on your way again, hiking to waterfalls and up scenic hills. The choice of locations and tour operators, however, does have a significant impact on who benefits and how much.

 

In Laos, many of these treks have been developed as a way to help poor communities make supplementary income and increase their skill levels, with often a portion of your trek going into a village development fund. This is a great way to learn about the real Lao culture and enjoy yourself.

Luang Prabang: the jewel of Indochina

Just about anywhere else in the world, a trip to the local Red Cross office would probably be a sign that your holiday had gone badly wrong. But not in the former Laotian royal capital of Luang Prabang, where the unprepossessing wooden structure tucked away behind Mount Phousi offers a surprisingly pleasant treat for the body and senses.

In this delightful Indochinese outpost, where the French colonial legacy mixes easily with traditional Laotian influences, life is enjoyed at a pace so gentle it borders on the somnolent. Amid such tranquillity, there is only one thing to do after a few hours spent meandering around the Buddhist monasteries in the marvellous old town or taking a long-tail boat trip along the Mekong. That is to unwind some more - and that is where the Red Cross comes in.

The organisation raises much-needed funds for its health work in dirt-poor outlying villages by providing traditional Lao massages and a natural herbal sauna. And rarely has doing a virtuous deed felt so good or come so cheap.This pampering in the raw is unadorned by the luxury and fuss usually associated with spa-going.

First stop, for a remarkably reasonable outlay of about £1.50, is the massage. Don't expect to be able to tell the masseur or masseuse that you have a particular ache or pain as the English spoken here is negligible. But that's fine - expert hands identified my knots and tensions without verbal directions.

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Well-kneaded and suitably relaxed, I moved on to an even more revelatory experience for another couple of pounds - the herbal sauna. A quick word of warning: this is not for the faint-hearted or claustrophobic. But it is worth every drip of perspiration and I certainly got to meet the locals who squeezed into the small wooden sweatbox (sorry, steamroom) in cheerful cheek-by-jowl intimacy.

The ritual is largely explained with hand gestures from the staff who direct men and women to their respective cabins. After tucking my clothes into a locker, I put on one of the sarongs provided and ventured into the intense cleansing heat. I swear I could feel the toxins pouring out of my pores as blasts of sizzling air wafted up a secret cocktail of herbs from the coals that heat the room from below.

After taking as much as I could bear, I retreated to the bench on the open terrace outside and gulped down black tea from the kettles constantly topped up on the table as my reddened, panting state provided some amusement to the locals. Revived, I returned to the fray for three repeat performances in the herb-infused atmosphere.

Luang Prabang sits in a bowl of mountains on a peninsula where the Nam Khan river flows into the Mekong. It was an ideal retreat for the rulers of the Kingdom of a Million Elephants and it still retains that sense of marvellous isolation and understated majesty.

I had first read about its charms two decades ago in an old guidebook pre-dating the communist takeover in 1975. But when I tried to visit Laos in 1986 as a student backpacker, the hardline communist regime only welcomed the occasional closely vetted tour group and the rebuff when I sought a visa at the embassy in Bangkok was as polite as it was firm. "We are repairing our country so that you can enjoy it better," a functionary informed me with a smile. "Please come back another time."

In the mid-1990s, shortly after the gerontocratic rulers realised that Mammon (and in particular tourist dollars) filled coffers that Marxism did not reach, I finally made it to Luang Prabang and was mesmerised by its beauty, its languid pace and seductive serenity. So I returned this year with some trepidation, fearful that the allure of this real-life Shangri-la would have fallen prey to the relentless march of modernity. But those fears were unfounded - the old town is as well-preserved and laid-back as ever.

Luang Prabang's most timeless tradition plays out in the gentle early-morning light as hundreds of monks emerge from the 30 or so temples for the dawn collection of alms. Aged eight to 80, they file barefoot along the streets, a long, sinewy line of saffron, opening their bowls to receive sticky rice and vegetables from the locals kneeling before them. One tip - there are a couple of bottlenecks marred by the flash of tourists' cameras, so the rite is best observed on one of the quieter back streets.

At the end of the day, as the last rays glint off gilded temple roofs, climb the 328 steps up Mount Phousi for the sunset view over the pocket-sized former royal palace-turned-museum and the waters that define the town's shape. Or for a more solitary experience, a short long-tail boat ride across the Mekong brings you to a string of deserted temples with a fabulous perspective of Luang Prabang as well as a sad, abandoned grandeur of their own.

Back in Luang Prabang, I lost myself strolling around the array of wats (temples) that makes this one of the region's religious centres. With its sweeping roofs, richly decorated gables, gold-stencilled columns and dark, luxuriant interiors, Wat Xieng Thong ("Golden Tree") is quite rightly regarded as the jewel in Luang Prabang's spiritual crown. But it was just as rewarding to wander around the smaller shrines where knots of novices sat studying their scripts in the courtyard in the shade of a tree.

After dusk falls, the night market springs into action as hill tribeswomen offer the sort of bargains in silk and linen that have long since disappeared from the streets of neighbouring Thailand. But in a town not renowned for its partying, our best after-dark experience came when we happened upon a wedding celebration and the bride's cheerfully tipsy father insisted that we join the revelry.

Luang Prabang has seen an influx of excellent restaurants in recent years. Elegantly decorated with traditional silks and cottons, the Apsara leads the way with its setting - a French colonial riverside residence - and an imaginative menu mixing the best of South Asian and Western. My mouth still waters at the memory of the buffalo sausages served with fresh ginger, peanuts and garlic followed by a fresh-water fish stuffed with lemongrass and accompanied by a garlic, tamarind and lime sauce.

The accommodation options are just as impressive. We opted for Maison Souvannaphoum, the one-time home of a Laotian prince, now converted into a very classy hotel with beautiful manicured grounds. The bedrooms include the erstwhile suite of the eponymous prince himself. The hotel's renowned spa also offers a rather more traditionally sumptuous experience than the Red Cross.

The hammer and sickle on the flag of the Lao People's Democratic Republic fluttering above the gates of Maison Souvannaphoum may be a gentle reminder that Marxists rather than monarchs have ruled the country since 1975. But in Luang Prabang, whether it be the humble environs of the Red Cross or a residence fit for a prince, the royal treatment is never far away.

Source: telegraph

Guide To Luang Prabang

Cradled in its mountainous eyrie, the town's location is as stunning as its temples are resplendent. Like an earl's fading finery, Luang Prabang's somnolent streets slumber on, largely unchanged since its ancient royal capital days.

Aside from smelly drains, Luang Prabang, whose name means 'Golden Buddha Capital', exhibits few flaws. Tourists are usually reluctant to leave the bicycle-paced cradle of Lao culture and often tarry longer than planned. The attraction stems partly from the terrain, as the one-time royal seat of Laos sits at the junction of the Mekong with one of its tributaries and is encircled by an amphitheater of limestone peaks. It even has its very own mountain right in the town, which rises steeply up behind the main street. The town is occasionally busy but rarely frantic and, thanks to strict planning regulations, is devoid of eyesores.

Time seems to have stood still in this special and serene place. In this respect it resembles the unique Italian city of San Gimignano, whose tightly-packed sixteenth century stone skyscrapers were left untouched for four hundred years when all the inhabitants died of the Black Death. Due to its isolation, Luang Prabang has preserved an older and slower way of life: old Asia, Asia without the crowds, Asia without the traffic, Asia where people have enough time for each other, enough time for themselves.

Luang Prabang seems almost camouflaged by palm trees and dense tropical foliage: from above, only golden-spired stupa roofs are visible, shimmering above the greenery. First-time visitors to this treasure trove of Laos culture are advised to devote at least the first day to taking in the stunning architectural display, with French-colonial chic married to Buddhist splendor to elegant effect.

At dawn scores of saffron-robed, alms-hungry monks file from the monasteries into the streets in a ritual that has become emblematic of the city's identity. The orange in the monks' robes is accentuated by the soft morning light in a scene framed by russet monastery roofs, palm trees and whitewashed colonial housing. Within an hour, the monks have completed their rounds and melted back into their monasteries. Although this daily ritual can be seen all over southeast Asia, it's particularly striking in Luang Prabang because of the density of temples and the concentration of monks: out of a population of 15,000 residents, there are over 500 monks.

By: Simon Ramsden

Article Source: EzineArticles.com Simon Ramsden