Lao New Year in Luang Prabang

Lao New Year in Luang Prabang

April 12 to 16, 2005

Next time I come to the beautiful, UNESCO-protected historic city of Luang Prabang during Lao New Year, remind me to bring four more changes of clothing (including underwear), a raincoat, a waterproof camera and a large watergun.

The Lao New Year tradition, I was told by my guesthouse owner, ONCE meant gently pouring water over one another’s hands, for good luck. 

Now, it means drenching everyone who goes by. Luang Prabang, the former royal capital of Laos, is THE place to be for Lao New Year.   (about $300 RT from Hanoi, the route is Hanoi-Vientiane (1.5 hrs) and then Vientiane-Luang Prabang (40 minutes)

During these two or three days, local residents (and perhaps visitors from Vientiane, the capital) line the streets, stationed around vats of water, armed with pails of water and waterguns, and hydro-assault anyone who goes by. 

These Laos are clearly not the happy hilltribe Laos you see in the postcards. 

The first day,  Ric and Rebecca (my travel companions) and I install ourselves at a café next to one of the main roads to watch the action. Any car or motorbike that drives by is fair game. 

Pedestrians are also fair game and in the beginning I was honored to be part of the festivities: we all got a mild smear of charcoal/paint on the face, a splash of cornflower, and then a drenching of water. 

And check out this video clip of the action on the street:

Download PICT1899.AVI

Before the craziness started, we took a boat ride to the Pak Ou Buddha Caves, a $20, hour long ride up the Mekong in a long wooden boat. Our driver brought along his wife and kids.  Here is his beautiful daughter, sitting next to me on the boat:

The caves were really cool – packed with buddha images of all sizes. Lost of tourists, many of them Lao, came for a New Year’s visit, to pray to the buddhas and sprinkle water on them

BTW here is where we stayed for the four nights:

No more $5 hostels for us.. too old for that. Rooms in the chic Apsara Hotel ($55/$65 a night) have super high-ceilings and dark-wood floors, and trimmings in aqua-colored silk. It’s run by a Brit named Ivan. The hotel and restaurant overlook the Nam Khan River, which meets up with the Mejong and forms a “U.”  Luang Prabang is located inside the “U.” At The Apsara’s restaurant/bar/veranda, it’s easy to start drinking gin and tonics and never leave.

The food is superb. We ate fish fried and covered in a tangy sauce and smothered in fresh dill, parsley, basil and other herbs;  watercress salad with pears; pumpkin and vegetable curry; eggplant salad. The profiteroles were sublime.  I was so busy eating I didn’t take photos.

The second day, it is sunny and really really HOT. We move slowly and drink drink drink – water, coconuts, lime sodas.  We station ourselves at a café along another main road to watch the big New Year’s procession.  The parade features Miss Luang Prabang 2005 riding by on an elephant, little Miss Luang Prabangs; monks going by (getting splashed by onlookers); more rowdy boys, a few cross-dressers.

By the end of the day we started sick of getting drenched…especially after this surprise attack while riding in this vehicle-for-hire (I don’t even know how to describe it. I’ve never seen this before). WE survived, here is the photo of us and the driver (also wet)

When the screaming and water attacks die down, it is balmy and peaceful.

  I’m thinking about making a booking for next year.  Prices will probably be higher – they were already double in some cases than the 2004 guide book I’d brought.  I hope UNESCO continues to fight off the inevitable threat of high rise hotels and busloads of tourists. That would be awful.  Luang Prabang is getting touristy, but it’s still mainly small groups of two or three people - families or backpackers --  their numbers are limited by the number of flights that operate here. Luang Prabang is still orderly, safe, clean, and has lots of good services for travelers (like internet, travel agencies, bikes for $1 a day, a variety of good guesthouses,).  Shopkeepers and restaurant staff are really nice and friendly, not grasping and greedy and out to suck as much hard currency from Westerners, which is the feeling you get in a lot of other place in Asia (namely Angkor Wat,  in Cambodia, and increasingly Vietnam). It's easy to forget Laos is an impoverished country, ruled by a dictatorship.

Comments

[Elaine]

Great shots.. really looks like a dream of a place.

[setha mao]

i want to know thing about cambodia not lao but i cool

[Erin]

Hi! I’m the Community Manager of Ruba.com. We’re building a website to highlight some of the most interesting places travelers around the world have discovered. We’ve read hundreds of blogs about SE Asia, and we think that yours is awesome! We’d love to highlight excerpts from blogs like yours (assuming it’s OK with you of course) and to discuss other ways of tapping into your expertise if you are interested. I’m at erin@ruba.com.
Thanks! :)