Luang Prabhang

We arrived in Luang Prabhang and caught an air-conditioned van into the city (about 3 miles away) for $5. Ripoff again, but not much you can do other than walk. We were dropped off at a restaurant on the main street, Saccharin Street. We had wanted to go to a different restaurant, but the driver wanted an additional $5 to take us there. We later found that the restaurant we wanted to go to was only about 200 feet away, around the corner, so determined that the driver must get paid to drop people off at this place.

Well, it worked, as we sat down with our bags and had lunch there. I had a wonderful ham and brie on a baguette. French food in Luang Prabhang is where it's at.

Luang Prabhang is a small place if you include only the "colonial" part of it: A peninsula on the meeting of two rivers (one being the Mekong) about 2 miles long by about half a mile wide, a goodly portion of which is taken up by a temple-topped hill. Back away from the peninsula is the more modern Luang Prabhang which consists mostly of small markets, small houses, and the occasional small hotel or government building. However, across the Mekong from Luang Prabhang is virtually no development, and the far bank of the other river (the Kharn River) is limited to grass huts and vegetable gardens. Both rivers have cut deep valleys around Luang Prabhang, so the view from town outwards is exceptionally scenic and exceptionally Asian. Steep mountains fill in the backdrop in a 360 degree arc. Oh... and the temperature is fabulous here in early April.

Luang Prabhang itself is really very pretty. Rick was of the opinion that it was all kind of a superficial presentation... a Lao Disney World. I wouldn't disagree with him, but I found that to be a positive, whereas he found it to be a negative. All of the buildings were old but well-kept. Everything was clean. There was no evidence of the "modern" southeast Asia which nobody (except southeast Asians) likes. There was nothing here to remind you of Bangkok, and nothing in Bangkok looks like this place.

It was quiet. Silent even. No music blaring from shops. Only an occasional chainsaw-like samlor engine broke the otherwise tranquil atmosphere. You could walk down the middle of the main street and not fear for your life, as the maximum speed of the motorized vehicles would be likened to the speed of a comfortable jog.

It took me a while, but I finally came across the perfect word to describe Luang Prabhang: Mellow.