Laos - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 368

Wat Pa Phai and Wat Saen
Lined with restaurants and travel agents,
the commercial neighbourhood just east
of the Royal Palace Museum along
Sisavangvong Road contains some fine
examples of traditional Chinese
shophouse architecture, given a Franco-
Lao treatment. A left turn down
Sisavangvatthani Road will take you to
Wat Pa Phai , the “Bamboo Forest
Monastery”, whose sim is painted and
lavishly embellished with stylized naga
(water serpents) and peacocks.
Doubling back up to the corner, turn
left to continue down Sakkaline Road as
far as Wat Saen , where an ornate boat
shed houses the monastery's two
longboats used in the annual boat race
festival. Held at the end of the rainy
season, the boat races are believed to lure
Luang Prabang's guardian naga back into
the rivers after high waters and flooded
rice paddies have allowed them to escape.

Traditional Arts and Ethnology
Centre (TAEC)
Situated up a steep road off Kitsalat
Road, the small Traditional Arts and
Ethnology Centre (Tues-Sun 9am-6pm;
25,000K; W taeclaos.org) offers a
fascinating insight into Laos's hill tribes
and their customs. Exhibits include
numerous items of clothing, such as an
amazing Akha Pouly Nyai woman's
headdress made up of over three hundred
silver ornaments, as well as household
objects and religious artefacts. here's also
an excellent shop and café here.

5

Wat Visoun and Wat Aham
he older parts of the city may have a
higher concentration of monasteries and
historic buildings, but there is plenty to
see beyond its confines. Wat Visoun and
Wat Aham (20,000K for both) share a
parcel of land on the opposite side of
Phousi from the Royal Palace Museum.
Wat Visoun has a bulbous, finial-topped
stupa, while half-hidden behind a pair
of huge banyan trees, neighbouring
Wat Aham features a delightfully
diminutive sim and a couple of mould-
blackened that (stupa).

Wat Xieng Thong
Probably the most historic and
enchanting Buddhist monastery in
the entire country, Wat Xieng Thong
(daily 6am-6pm; 20,000K), near the
northernmost tip of the peninsula, is
unmissable. he wonderful, graceful
main sim was built in 1560 and a recent,
extensive US-funded project has vividly
restored much of its intricate gold
stencilling and mosaic work. You'll need
to stand at a distance to get a view of the
roof, the sim 's most outstanding feature.
Elegant lines curve and overlap, sweeping
nearly to the ground, and evoke a bird
with outstretched wings or, as the locals
say, a mother hen sheltering her brood.
Across the monastery grounds is the
Funerary Carriage Hall . he hall's wide
teakwood panels are deeply carved
with depictions of characters from the
Lao version of the Ramayana. Inside,
the principal article on display is the
latsalot , the royal funerary carriage,
used to transport the mortal remains of
King Sisavong Vong, the penultimate
monarch of Laos, to cremation. he
vehicle is built in the form of several
bodies of parallel naga , with jagged fangs
and dripping tongues.

UXO Lao Visitor Centre
Behind the large President
Souphanouvong Park, 1km south of the
old city, the UXO Lao Visitor Centre
(Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 1-4pm;
donations welcome) addresses the
devastating impact on Laos of the US's
nine-year bombing campaign during the
Second Indochina War. he small
exhibition lays out the shocking statistics
- more ordnance was dropped on the
country than was used during the whole
of World War II - and outlines the uphill
task facing UXO Lao.

Phosy Market and Ock Pop Tok
Around 2km southwest of the centre
along Photisalath Road (20,000K by
tuk-tuk), Phosy Market (daily 7am-5pm)
provides a welcome taste of real daily life
in Luang Prabang away from the tourists.
his huge, largely covered market sells
almost everything you can think of, from
machetes to mobiles to giant Miffys.