Time to move on to our next destination – Luang Prabang in Laos. First, we join our guide Anne for some last-minute sightseeing. Given all the ceremonies, street and public facility closings, and throngs of people out and about to show their final respect to the king, it was a challenge figuring out what we might see. The national history museum was our first choice. Unfortunately, the streets to get there were either closed or clogged with heavy traffic. Anne’s back-up choice was the Suan Pakkad Palace Museum. The palace was the residence of the grandson of King Rama V. The main attraction is four traditional Thai houses that were taken apart and transported from their original location in 1952. The grounds, buildings, and artifacts collected by the family are now owned by a private foundation. This little island of history in the midst of a modern city allows people to reconnect with their roots.
Grounds of the Suan Pakkad Palace Museum
Traditional Thai house
Entrance to the museum
Great, but enough with museums!
Our flight to Luang Prabang, on a small, two-propeller airplane was delayed, by a strong electrical storm. As we entered Laos airspace, the terrain changed to mountains and valleys. Our approach to the airfield was through a narrow valley between two lush, green mountain ranges. This is a very small airport (single runway, no taxiway) for a very small town. It took only about ten minutes to reach our hotel, 3 Nagas, in the center of town. A 1952 Citroën, serving as a marker, is parked on the street and is a reminder of the French colonization era. For those interested, the Citroën was France’s luxury car of choice for royalty and dignitaries. We saw many in Hanoi last year.
Will this little airplane be able to hold all my luggage?
Arriving at Luang Prabang airport
Lets go for a ride!
Luang Prabang is a charming small town of about six thousand residents located at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers in north central Laos. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995 for its preservation of cultural, religious, and architectural history. Main street has almost no traffic and is lined by shops and restaurants.
To put things in perspective, Laos is about the size of Minnesota, is about half the size of Thailand, yet has less than one-tenth the population – about six million. Laos was founded in the 15th century by people from Tibet, China, and Vietnam, displacing the indigenous people of the area. The migration consisted of numerous ethnic groups with different languages and cultures. In 1713, Laos split into three kingdoms but was subject to Thai rule. Over the centuries the borders with Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, and Vietnam changed many times, for all of them were more powerful than Laos. In 1893, it became a protectorate of France. Under French rule, the three kingdoms were merged into one. Laos was formally declared an independent state in 1950, and was recognized by the United states but foiled in its application to join the United Nations by a Soviet Union veto. In reality, France remained in control of the country and the French army retained the right to operate freely, and to order the Lao forces at will, until it became fully independent in 1953. At that point, its close relationship with North Vietnam dominated the governance of the country such that it became a de facto extension of North Vietnam.
The Vietnam war had a great impact starting in 1955 until the fall of Saigon in 1975. The infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail, used to supply the Viet Cong fighters in South Vietnam, ran inside Laos. The Unites States conducted a covert bombing operation in an attempt to disrupt this supply line. We dropped more bombs on Laos than all the Allies collectively dropped in Europe during World War II, with the collateral killing of more than fifteen thousand Laotians. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we dropped standard bombs as well as cluster bombs that eject explosive bomblets designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles. More than 30% of the bomblets did not detonate on impact. These have killed more than 20,000 Laotian farmers, children, and travelers since 1975. Millions of bombs remain to be found and destroyed.
The revolution of 1975 brought the Communist Party to power. Members of the monarchy were either killed or escaped into exile. The economy of communism was not successful. In 1993, the economy took a sharp reversal as land was returned to the previous owners and businesses returned to private ownership, for everyone’s benefit. Today it is still a military-centric, communist government, but the economy is a free economy. While most people don’t like communist rule, they are happy.
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