Day 66: Luang Prabang
Trip Start
Sep 21, 2006
1
67
228
Trip End
Jun 01, 2007
Luang Prabang,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Sunday, November 26, 2006
My suffering trousers, stained by weeks of trekking and bus journeys are now in shreds. Clothes seem not to survive more than a month through general wear and rough washings. It's no wonder long-term travellers end up dressed in local cottons and baggy pants, as their wardrobe withers away. I buy some new trousers, as visitors are expected to be smartly dressed in Laos (the ban on T-shirts in the Palace Museum seems to have lifted, though).
The Royal Palace Museum was the royal home until the succession of the crown prince was interrupted by the governing communists, Pathet Lao
01 Nam Khan
. The royal family were exiled to the east, imprisoned, starved and neglected till they perished. The wife of the crown prince still survives, however and owns a hotel in Luang Prabang formerly named after her. Now, the museum seems to celebrate their reign, yet there is a haunting feel to the preserved rooms of a dead dynasty.The throne room is decorated with Japanese-glass mosaics depicting folk tales and scenes of life in Luang Prabang. Rooms are filled with cabinets of international gifts, a golden palanquin, a howdah (the king's elephant saddle), swords and many small Buddhas rescued from destroyed wats. The royal betel-nut containers suggest the monarchy had blackened teeth. Out front is the Prabang Buddha, after which the city is named (Great Prabang). Every Laos New Year it is paraded through the city.
Beside the museum is an active monasterial complex, Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham. A novice selling tickets is carefully colouring in a drawing of the Wat. The entrance bears a busy gold-painted relief telling the tale of Buddha's penultimate incarnation, Prince Vessantara (the same tale is told on cloth paintings displayed in the Royal Museum.) Within, thousands of tiny gold images of Buddha are pasted to the red walls and a naga forms an elaborate candle rail. Outside, a monk draws water from a well, vermillion and mustard robes are drying on a line, and offerings of sticky rice are applied to stupas shaped like lotus buds
02 Cave shrine at Wat Tham Phu Si
.Despite the chill morning having turned to a muggy heat, I pace up the trail of Buddhas to the peak of Phu Si. Little is ancient up here, bar the ruins of Wat Pha Phuthabaht (1395) around an impression of Buddha's footprint; This is only slightly foot-shaped, and a metre across. But, amongst angular rocks and frang-y-pani trees, with a view over the city and the two rivers, it's a stunning location. That Chomsi, the stupa at the top, visible from much of the city is nothing special close up. Children swap palm-leaf cones dressed with marigolds for printed blessings.
Back at ground level I do my bit for international relief with a kneading massage at the Laos Red Cross centre, then, reeking of Tiger Balm, I try to blend into the crowds on Th Sisavangvong and imbibe a thimbleful of wine at The Hive. I flee when a local planning manager talks in inpenetrable English to me. From what I could glean, he is involved in a project to drill a tunnel through Phu Si (This turns out not to be true.). A large, bland-looking office or shopping complex also being planned may also transform the city, not necessarily for the better.
