Visitez Luang Prabang, et le reste du Laos

The Chinese market

Benolaos — 2012-06-19T04:09:56Z

It is situated on Laos's main road that leads to Vientiane, opposite the new sports stadium.

On an area of over several thousand square metres, there are many Chinese (that often don't speak Laotian...) gathered to sell products from China, with whom Laos shares a border a few hundred kilometres to the North. Here Chinese is spoken, trading is done in the Chinese fashion, everybody writes and counts in Chinese !

You can find anything on this market; its a sort of a huge bazaar where everybody sells everything (saucepans in the middle of televisions, bicycle chains, tooth picks), its a sort of flea market, where all the prices are as low a they can be.

Quality is logically and unfortunately absent. Some people go as far as to say that ALL the products that are sold there, have a manufacturing fault, which is more or less important, whether it be T-shirts with speling errrers, or irons that break into flame when they're used.

The Hmong Day Market

Benolaos — 2012-06-18T21:11:26Z

A few years ago, working in one of the villages around Luang Prabang, half a dozen Hmongs started selling their goods directly, on a square that had so far been unoccupied. Many people came to buy this authentic craftsmanship and embroidery sold by Hmongs who were very often dressed in traditional clothes ...

After a few years, this small meeting point became a covered market, which counted about a hundred stalls (covered by a few pieces of bamboo and motley pieces of cloth to protect people from the sun's rays.)

Its central situation (opposite the New Luang Prabang Hotel) make it a ‘must see' for all the tourists. The choice, prices which can be bartered and the smiles that you can find there make it a very pleasant place. Many of the stalls that are there during the day are still there when night falls, so that they can propose their products on the night market as well. Being as these products are all made according to tradition, they all look very similar.

Following the success of these markets with the tourists, Heritage House decided to supply sanitary conveniences, whose construction was started in 2003.

The Darat Market

Benolaos — 2012-06-18T21:02:06Z

Closed for 3 years because of renovations, the Darat Market reopened its doors at the beginning of January 2008.

It used to be a squalid but very animated souk and is now a rather deserted shopping mall in the centre of town. A sort of dirty industry has been replaced by ‘upper class' shops but also Chinese products; and the atmosphere which was the heart and soul of the town seems to be taking some time to come back into being.

There are no more packets of washing powder piled up to the ceiling in premises with flaking paint on the walls. In its place, we find luxurious craftsmanship, wine merchants, salesmen of Chinese portable telephones, one or more silversmiths, a modern bar and other shops.

The morning market

Benolaos — 2012-06-18T21:01:50Z

This small market is the Laotian "supermarket" where they come to buy their fresh fruit, vegetables and meat, which are proposed in showcases which are not always the way we use to see in most of our countries. Some products are coming from the jungle around, and will be for sure highly exotic for travellers from western countries.

Very active as from 8 o'clock in the morning, its a typical passing spot for Laotians who come to buy and/or to sell. There's a lot going on ! You can find many unusual foodstuffs like ox-blood which is proposed in gelatinous cubes, serpents, bats, grilled insects (worms, grasshoppers, bee's larvae, crickets, butterfly chrysalis), giblets covered with flies, caramelised pork's head, and all sorts of leaves and plants which are used to make the traditional dishes.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TQ16-KJlCsc

Walking through the morning market in Luang Prabang

Fresh products coming from the Luang Prabang's jungle

You can find Thai products, cultivated in greenhouses, as well as the seasonal Lao products. Freshly caught fish, bunches of local flowers especially made for leaving in the temples as offerings, as well as many other items ... A must see!

The Phosy Market

Benolaos — 2012-06-18T14:46:13Z

The Phosi market is by far the biggest market in Luang Prabang. Three quarters of it is covered, there are several hundred merchants of all kinds proposing a large variety of products. You can find there vegetable gardeners as well as small stalls selling clothes (always in the Chinese style), merchants for health products, school materials, hardware, etc.

You can find products that come from everywhere, from Laos (not very many manufactured products, except for the well known Beerlao), Chinese and Thai products as well as indirectly, everything that has any relationship whatsoever with food and that comes from local producers.

The smells you come across in this market are very varied. The small amount of air in this area makes the atmosphere heavy, but even so ... it's the perfect spot to get the feel of the different activities of Luang Prabang and the provinces that surround it. All these gay and happy Laotians, never stop talking and laughing, the huge quantities of products on the stalls held by Laotians who very often speak nothing else but Laotian. All this, plus the incessant comings and goings of the touktouks, make it a market that should not be missed.

Open from 7 o'clock in the morning till 5 o'clock in the evening, every day.

The Caterer's Evening Market

Benolaos — 2012-06-18T14:35:36Z

This is a site which must not be missed if you want to taste Laotian specialities, which you very often can't find even in restaurants. The Lao's come here regularly to buy their food (probably from laziness, so as not to cook ...) along with tourists who will find it typical, animated and very pleasant.

Numerous stalls, very often held by women, propose a large choice of prepared dishes, hot and cold, so that curious visitors can try out the local food, which he is not likely to find, even in typical restaurants. There are many interesting and exotic specialities in Luang Prabang. Hygiene is uncertain and may very well put travellers off trying (mind you, there are never any illnesses, even with the tourists ...), it would be such a shame, not to let yourself be tempted and to pass by one of the best cookery in Asia :

dried alga (Khao Pheng)
slivers of caramelised pork (Ping Som Mou)
pieces of dried and perfumed beef (Sinsavanh)
noodle soups (traditional "Feuh", "Khao Soy" or Khao Piak)
meat or vegetable brochettes
small coconut waffles
etc.

The area is quite badly lit, sometimes the smells from the barbecues are a bit strong, but it is still very typical, happy and so unusual that it is a ‘MUST' to go round the market, which is mainly patronised by Laotians.

The night market

Benolaos — 2012-06-18T13:45:25Z

The night market, in the centre of town, "opens its doors" every evening at round about 5 o'clock. This market was only supposed to last for a few weeks. It opened in December 2002, on the Occidental Christmas Eve; a few Hmongs and other craftsmen of the region proposed their products to tourists, who are always looking for traditional gifts. At that time, no electricity: it could be called the candle market ;-)

This market, finally, never stopped, and is for ever increasing in size so as to have, now, a few hundred stalls. The products range from chess games in ornamental stone to silk scarves, passing by embroidery, sculpture, more or less real opium pipes, portrayals of Buddha in all imaginable forms, local paintings, done around the symbolic Buddhist representations, etc. It is a place where you must go and where bargaining is often very colourful…

Contrary to their Thai, Chinese or Vietnamese neighbours, Laotians have no bargaining sense and no idea of how to swindle you, (its very rare to find someone who will take advantage of tourists, by increasing his prices astronomically). So you've got to be careful not to bargain under their cost prices, so as not to aggravate the endemic poverty; what you mustn't forget, is that the storekeepers are not always very good accountants in this latitude...

Since 2005, there are more and more Chinese and Vietnamese products. The opening of borders, the ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations), the flow of money due to tourism, are certainly some of the reasons for the change in this market where you can still find a lot of local handmade craftsmanship. The market gradually breaks up around 9 o'clock in the evening, but there is always some way of finding a last souvenir up until 10 o'clock.