The important thing to know about LP and Laos as a nation is that the French ruled it for some 65 years until the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1953. This accounts for the hordes of French tourists and the "cafe and croissants" ambience of the old quarter. Why they come in such numbers when hardly anyone here speaks French is a mystery to me but maybe it's much like us Brits thinking we have a special affinity with our former subjects in India. So, coffee and cake it was then.
Caffeine itch scratched, we cycled along to the Royal Palace, which these days of course is a museum. Opposite is a set of three or four hundred steps leading to a small but spectacularly situated temple called Wat Chom Si, from where you can see the town stretched out two rivers of LP, the Mekong and the Nam Khan.
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| Royal Chapel |
We decided against visiting the museum today and against climbing up to Wat Chom Si because we needed to conserve our energy in the heat and we also really wanted to get to the Wat Xieng Thong, one of the major reasons why LP is designated by Unesco as a World Heritage Site.
The Palace grounds are attractive though and we had time to admire the Royal Chapel which is a bit different to our own Queen's private place of worship at Windsor Castle.
The temple complex of Wat Xieng Thong marks the end of the old town where the Nam Khan flows into the Mekong. It was built in the sixteenth century and, despite being the place where the kings of Laos were crowned, had fallen into a state of disrepair by the last century. Today, when we visited, you could see monks in their saffron robes up on ladders and scaffolding, carrying out important repair work. Part of the restoration programme has focused on giving the monks the necessary skills to do this.
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| Inside one of the small Buddha chapels |
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| The Royal Funerary Carriage |
It was a hugely impressive place to visit. The journey home, therefore, by bike through the mundane side of town was something of an anti-climax, which probably accounts for my decision to start filming with my mobile phone whilst steering the bike one-handed. Check out the masterly video below.
As Maggie rode on, I holstered my phone back into its case, and set off again, only for a passing truck to hit me. It struck my handlebars a glancing blow, then my elbow a split-second later. As the tailgate shaved a layer of skin off my elbow, there was an audible gasp of horror from the Laotian ladies in the back of the pickup. I was okay but I made a good show of rolling up my sleeve to staunch the blood (there wasn't any!) as they rounded the corner, all goggle-eyed. I'd wanted to capture on film the chaotic nature of the traffic in LP but the best demonstration happened after the camera was turned off.
Anyway, back to town later for the consolation of a vegetarian buffet meal from a street stall for just 10,000 Laotian Kip - there are over 12,000 Kip to the British pound so pretty cheap. Pretty decent food too.
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