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 

Seduced by Luang Prabang, Laos

We traveled here for four days: my wife and the girls plus my wife’s mom and husband, visiting from America. It was the last leg of their three-week visit to Southeast Asia and it didn’t disappoint.

Speaking with Andrew, the owner (who’s originally from Melbourne) he told me that one reason Luang Prabang has managed to retain its soul is that the people here are so proud of their culture, that they work hard to preserve it.

Old and new converge in Luang Prabang, Laos.

It shows. It’s a walkable town, although it’s also easy to grab one of the colorful tuk tuks, those covered motorcycle trucks with bench seats that are painted in a rainbow of colors. Male monks in saffron robes pace next to flash packing tourists. It’s a strange juxtaposition of the ancient and modern.

We started with a visit to an ethnology museum, a small affair funded by western nonprofits and housed in an old French villa. Here we learned about the minority tribes in Laos and their dress and

Luang Prabang: The Epithet of Laotian History, Culture and Nature

Formed at the convergence of the famous Mekong and Kahn rivers in Laos, the town of Luang Prabang is the archetypal product of when colonial and traditional architecture collide. Groomed in pristine fashion, one would think he is the first to discover this exotic landscape.

Palm trees line the riverside, as the spires of divine stupas protrude through the trees, and all while in the company of Buddha’s servants.

Above ground level, the views will take your breath away as the landscape proudly shows off its mountainous terrain. As you weave through hiking grounds blessed doused in nature’s beauty, one cannot help but act with acquiescence as you discover serene tropical nooks and tranquil waterfalls.

Luang Prabang is a place where sights, sounds and curiosity guide your adventure

Journey down the Mighty Mekong

The Mekong is one of the world’s major rivers, weaving together the land and indigenous cultures of Tibet, southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. It’s also one of the best ways to get around in Southeast Asia.

Mekong River Boat

In Laos, a journey down the Mekong is not a mere travel adventure pursuit. It’s an experience of daily life. Here in one of Asia’s poorest countries, many highways exist only in theory. The Mekong is often the sole