08/03/2010 - Ramayana Told in Dance

Both had a bad night’s sleep – Grahame from too much beer and Tracey from waking up in the middle of the night and remembering that we hadn’t picked up the last bit of laundry before we left Thailand! Sounds like not much of a problem as clothes are so cheap until you need a sports bra in a land of flat-chested midgets!

Tracey made a call to the old guesthouse in the hope that someone was flying to LP today but no such luck. Then we got dressed and headed into town for our daily dose of banana shake and a late breakfast at JoMa Bakery Café. While the food was reasonable it was way over our budget so that will be the last cappuccino for a while! We had missed the early session at the museum so we wandered down the main street for a bit of temple-viewing and people watching. Back at the Royal Palace Museum we checked out the opulent reception rooms of the King, Queen and the King’s secretary which were filled with sculptures, murals and other artworks plus numerous gifts to Laos from countries around the world including a gold Buddha after which the town is named – Pha Bang. There was a particularly interesting collection of drawings depicting a local legend that you could read and follow as you walked from room to room and the bedrooms were set up as they would have been when it was the King’s summer palace. This was prior to the 1975 revolution when the last king was exiled to northern Laos and he was imprisoned with his family in the caves of Vieng Xai.

It was pretty hot by the time we left the palace, after purchasing our tickets for the evening’s performance of the Lao National Ballet, so we headed down to the juice stand for a fresh pineapple juice and then on to see a few more Wats. We were in luck as it must have been bell-ringing o’clock and the young monks at two neighboring temples – Wat Sop and Wat Siboun Heang were having a bit of a competition at who could gong longest and loudest! Actually it was quite impressive to see and took a lot of strength from the monks who took turns at the drum and other instruments.

After this show of strength we wandered further down the peninsula to check out Wat Xieng Thong. This Wat was built in 1560 by King Settathirat and also houses the Royal Funeral Chapel – a 12m high chariot that looks like a boat on wheels. This chapel also houses a lot of Buddhas brought by locals from their homes after the Chinese stole hundreds of Buddhas from Lao temples.

After this visit it was back to our room to get changed for the Laos National Ballet – the 600 year old Ramayana Ballet. After a quick pizza we headed up to the Royal Ballet Theatre and took our seats in the stifling theatre. (Luckily we had chosen one class up from the plastic seats against the back wall!) The costumes and the dancers were beautiful but it was all a bit slow in the storytelling and we found ourselves urging the characters to ‘get on with it’. It didn’t help that we were so hot – even the musicians sitting on the side of the stage kept wandering off (probably to get drinks and cool down). Anyway it was an experience and we found out what the story was after we found some fliers after the performance (would have been useful beforehand) but our imaginations were working hard and our story was quite amusing! Back into the throngs of the night market we did a little gift shopping and Grahame bought yet another cane – although not as expensive as his one’s at home!

 Then we wandered off for a nightcap – pineapple juice and vodka – and listened to the shop owners sing and play guitar before a long walk home via the river to bed. We did check out the cruise ship on the way but discovered that it only runs when the river is much higher so we are out of luck at getting a boat down south along the Mekong – another time maybe.

View Khem Khong Guest House, Th. Khem Khong, Luang Prabang, Laos
(100,000 Kip w fan & hot water ensuite – simple but clean & opposite the river)
Ph: 856-71 213032 / m: 856-20 6783080.