The northeast - The Rough Guide to Laos - page 232

Phathy Road
The main street is the two-kilometre-long, four-lane PhathyRoad - a huge central boulevard
lined with institutional-looking government buildings and bearing the unmistakable mark of
the Vietnamese, who rebuilt the town after the war. It does seem remarkably empty, however,
as though the city were destined for great things that never quite materialized.
There are almost no cultural sites, but you can walk up Phathy Road to the victory monu-
ment , an easy climb that affords a good view of the valley, and a bit further on, near the main
street's end, to WatPhoxaysanalam . Construction of the wat began in 1958 and took nearly
a decade to complete, whereupon it was almost immediately destroyed by the bombing. The
modest structure that now stands here was completed in the 1980s. It was until very recently
the only wat in town and there are only a handful of resident monks. As journalist Christoph-
er Kremmer wrote in Stalking the Elephant Kings : “if you're tired of seeing monks in Laos,
come to Sam Neua”. The town's three other pre-war wats, including the two-hundred-year-
old Xieng Khuang-style Wat Inpeng, were never rebuilt. The sad little spires along Phathy
Road leading up to the wat indicate where these holy sites once were.
The food market
Sam Neua's food market , on the eastern side of the river, is a good place to get a feel for the
province's character. Vietnamese goods, many of which are bought by merchants at week-
end border markets in Xieng Khoun and Na Maew, flood the stalls in a display of veget-
ables, meats and the occasional severed dog head. The market buzzes throughout the day, its
vendors bundled against the cold with their heads wrapped in colourful scarves, a sartorial
twist that most likely lent the province its name - “Hua Phan” means “wrapped head”. It's a
great place to head to for a cheap bowl of fõe , or to try some local snacks.
The dry market
Just south of the food market is Sam Neua's dry market . Here you'll find all manner of in-
dividual stalls selling various goods, including a minor smattering of Lao textiles , although
much of the best stuff gets sent directly to Luang Prabang or Vientiane. Although a lot of
cloth is produced in Hua Phan, it's all made in people's homes, not factories. The area around
the dry market houses all kinds of electrical shops bulging with refrigerators, televisions,
rice-cookers, bicycles and home karaoke systems.