Visitez Luang Prabang, et le reste du Laos

Pakbeng

Benolaos — 2017-12-29T08:59:47Z

This small village of Pakbeng lies half-way between Huay Xai and Luang Prabang, perched high on the banks of the Mekong river, in a preserved surrounding, close to the international Thai border connecting Nan.

Travellers might need to stop one night if they navigate with the slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang (or vice-versa), but they usually don't stay more than 1 night, even if there are couple of (hidden) curiosities around: non-touristic ethnic villages, primary forest with huge multi-century old rare essence of trees.

Pakeng is also a crossroad from Northern-Laos (Oudomxay, and further China), and Central Laos (Sayaboury and Vientiane).

Discover some activities in Pakbeng, see document below by Le Grand (PDF file)

Sayabouri, the Elephant city

Benolaos — 2017-12-29T08:29:41Z

Sayabouri is a city located in Northern Laos, 2 hours drive from Luang Prabang. This region has always been the stronghold of elephants that lived historically wild in hordes. The area was also probably a normal path for elephant transhumance from north to south of Asia.

Today, the city hosts each year the elephant festival which usually takes place during the second half of February, the third weekend. Dates are unfortunately given at the last moment. For that special 3-day festival, the city welcome more than 25.000 persons. in a 5,000 inhabitants city, the principle is homestay accommodation. Attempting to book a room in a hotel of any category is a dream.

The region is very beautiful and the province has distinguished itself very early from other regions by adopting ecological standards, long before they were discussed at the national level.

The Elephant Conservation Centre

The centre itself is worth a detour (see article about the Centre). The place is unique in Laos. Looking for the entry door, only accessible by boat through a little cruise on the lake, the place is charming. The owner and the staff are completely dedicated to the pachyderms, a clinic was set up to help injured or sick elephants. Vistors will find a little museum about elephants, and many books about the subject.

Le Vat Si Bounheuang

in the southern part of Sayaboury, in the airport area, you will find ruins of an old temple (300, 700 year old ???). Renovation of the place to protect the old bricks have been started in 2016.

We will admire the laying meditating Buddha, and the pains about Buddha's life and principle of karma are beautiful.

Le Vat Na Niao

We can also visit the temple Wat Na Niao, in the village Ban Khen Keo where something quite incredible happened 5th month of year 2557 (couple of days before Lao New Yer, mid-April). Kamnoui, a young man a bit lunatic, native of the village, discovered a huge trunk (with a diameter about 2 meter) in a neighbouring river close to the village.

Back home, Kamnoui described his find to his parents, Mr. Bountheung and Mrs. Venphet, farmers, but only got incredulity... Without the help of Khamnoui's uncle, Mr. Bountiane Khounphadit, the trunk would certainly remain where he had been sleeping since we do not know how long. Because during the life of the village, no one had ever noticed the massive and straight like a "i" trunk resting all along. In its perfect state of conservation, it could clearly be predicted of a very dense tree essence, noble, and probably rare in view of its ash colour so singular ... For Khamnoui whose life has not always been very easy is like winning the lottery.

A party (a Boun) was organized to rally the friends and together get out the piece of wood from his bed. Five jars of 20 litres of laolao (local sake) and five big chickens were brought for the festivities to motivate the crowd. Came the moment when it was necessary to get of the precious piece of wood from water. The story (verifiable) says that it was not so easy, and that it was necessary to take several times, and that each time we increased significantly the means, but that nothing made there, that 4x4 vehicles were combined in large numbers to arrive, and after six hours of unsuccessful attempts, the tree finally came out of its coffin.

The tree measured in fact 37 meters, for 2.60 meters in circumference, an exemplary straightness, a weight of more than 11 tons, and especially an estimated age around 900 years after analysis of a sample ...

A beautiful temple, where it is customary to sound the gong caressing it in his heart. The donations (2.000 kip, more if you want) are particularly recommended: they would bring the chance, "the Boun"... another story of Buddhist karma, also verifiable.

Xieng Khuang, the Plain of Jars

Benolaos — 2017-12-29T07:52:09Z

Located in the north-eastern part of Laos, the Plain of Jars is a region well known for the large number of sites where hundreds of jars can be seen. Their presence and their usefulness remain to be elucidated.

Xieng Khuang province was also the scene of intense bombing during the secret war that has lasted more than 10 years and has not only left visible legacy with irreparable damages, but still causes deaths and injuries each year (around 1 per day).

Because of this history, some villages have been converted into the recycling of metals left by intense bombing, such as the village of Na Pia ("the spoon village"), making spoons with some warheads aluminum.

From Wikipedia:

More than 90 jar sites have been identified within Xieng Khuang Province. Each site has from one to 400 stone jars. The jars vary in height and diameter between 1m and 3m and are all hewn from rock. Their shape is cylindrical with the bottom always wider than the top. The stone jars are undecorated, with the exception of a single jar at Site 1. This jar has a human "frogman" bas-relief carved on the exterior. Parallels between the "frogman" and the rock painting at Huashan in Guangxi, China have been drawn. The Chinese paintings, which depict large full-frontal images of humans with arms raised and knees bent, are dated to 500 BC–200 AD.

Variations in the practices of cremation inside jars and secondary burial outside jars, as noted by Colani, have proven difficult to explain. The cremated remains seem to mainly belong to adolescents. While the bomb clearance operations did not involve emptying of jars and thus no additional evidence could be gathered, Van Den Bergh claimed that the stone jars initially may have been used to distil the dead bodies and that the cremated remains within the jars represent the most recent phase in Plain of Jars. The jars with smaller apertures may reflect the diminishing need to place an entire body inside.

The suggestion that the jars, in a similar fashion to traditional Southeast Asian Royal mortuary practices, functioned as 'distilling vessels', was put forward by R. Engelhardt and P. Rogers in 2001. In contemporary funerary practices followed by Thai, Cambodian and Laotian royalty, the corpse of the deceased is placed into an urn during the early stages of the funeral rites, at which time the soul of deceased is believed to be undergoing gradual transformation from the earthly to the spiritual world. The ritual decomposition is later followed by cremation and secondary burial.

For more information about the scientific survey in Plain of Jars, we might be interested by this content: The history blog.

Nong Khiaw

Benolaos — 2017-12-29T07:44:19Z

150km up north Luang Prabang on the road # 13, the peaceful village of Nong Khiaw (also called Mouang Ngoi Khoua). This village is about 4000 inhabitants, and developed around the bridge that straddles the Nam Ou River, one of the most historically pure rivers of Laos and home to fish and crayfish reputed in the region.

The karst landscapes where the rocky peaks abound are beautiful. You will find a relatively unspoiled nature, waterfalls, and a river Nam Ou where fishing is obviously practiced, and a great place to experiment kayaking.

After visiting the Patok caves where the administration took refuge during the secret Laos war (today's concrete stairs were at that time made of bamboo), we can go further to the villages of Ban Sen and Ban Bomvan where one village is specialized in dyeing and another in spinning and hand weaving.

Muang Ngoy and the area

Benolaos — 2012-06-19T02:19:08Z

Approximately 90 miles North of Luang Prabang, the village of Muang Ngoi is one of the most beautiful areas in Laos. Hidden on a plain beside the river Nam Ou, which is one of the rivers which have the most fish, there are approximately 1000 inhabitants which make it one of the largest villages in the region. Accessible only by river, Muang Ngoi is very much appreciated by visitors looking for tranquillity, serenity and peace.

They have lived autonomously for more than 30 years and after opening up to tourists at the beginning of the years 2000, the village developed very quickly. Guesthouses opened, restaurants grew up all over the place. You can even find a massage salon and some "trekking agencies". The region is worth the physical effort to reach the summits that give incredible views.

For couple of years, there is access to mobile network (ETL). Since 2015, electricity arrived in the village.

For your information, we actually propose tours around Muang Ngoi, like the 3D/2N to discover the area.