Royal Palace Museum and Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang, Laos

We spent a day visiting the former Palace of the Lao Royal Family.  The palace grounds were directly across from our hotel in Luang Prabang. They are only open early in the morning, then closed for a couple hours at lunch, and then open again from 130 to 4. Inside the palace, as is customary in most places in Luang Prabang, no one is allowed to wear shoes. The palace is absolutely gorgeous and refreshingly simple and understated, something I cannot say about some of the other royal homes I have visited in my life(not too many.) I believe I already described the Palace a bit in my other posts, but it is worth talking about it a bit more. The entrance was a large grand room with doorways on all four sides, one leading outside, the one straight ahead leading to the throne room, and on each side large galleries, one a dining hall, the other a sitting room. The tour goes counter clockwise around the rooms of the palace, which all connect, forming a large circle. No pictures are allowed inside unfortunately, and no books of the palace were for sale anywhere. The first room after the entrance room was a large sitting room with murals from floor to ceiling. The murals were in a sort of impressionist, neo Van Gogh style. They were from waist level, to the top of the 15 foot ceiling, and all the way around the room, which was at least 25 feet long by 15 feet wide. The murals depicted everyday life in Luang Prabang and the countryside of Laos, scenes or rivers, markets, strees, and elephants. From there, we saw several hallways filled with large steel drums, very intricately designed, and then entered the main throne room(directly ahead of the doorway.)  The throne room was decorated floor to ceiling in dichro glass mosaics. The mosaics depicted more life from Laos, and were made using glass from Japan. I wont describe the Palace completely, but other rooms were filled antique Buddhas from all over Asia, and some over a thousand years old. The Buddhas were made of gold, clay, quartz crystal, wood, and any other material that could be fashioned in to the appropriate shape. The King and Queen had seperate bedrooms. The rooms were massive, at least 25 feet by 15 feet, and had giant furniture. Despite the scale of the furniture, the rooms seemed rather empty, with tons of open floor space. Again, the highlights for me were the gifts from other countries, especially the moon pieces from the USA.

Overall the Palace was spectacular, yet understated. It was very stylish, but totally not overdone. It was simple, and tastefully furnished. The art, furniture, and belongings of the Royal family were all oversized, but because of the scale of the Palace, they fit in perfectly. The Palace overall was maybe only 15 rooms and at most 10,000 square feet. This made it large, and grandiose, but by no means gaudy or out of place in Lao. It was the most beautifully simple, and livable royal palace I have ever seen, and the kind of place a normal person may actually want to live, not just dream of living in.

Wat Xieng Thong was quite cool as well. I wont go in to depth on it, but the grounds were surrounded by small, very intricately buildings that were all quite impressive. One building was a sort of garage for the Royal funeral carriage. This building had another amazing "tree of life" mosaic, once again made of dichro glass. The main Wat(temple), shown in the picture with Jin holding the postcard, is the oldest Wat in Luang Prabang and one of the most beautiful. The Wat on the Royal Palace grounds is brighter and flashier, but that may just be because it is almost done being restored, while Wat Xieng Thong seems to be in a bit more "original" condition. Inside was the usual oversided Buddha shrine(old hat by now) and amazing woodwork everywhere. People came in and out, taking off their shoes at the door, and bowing to their knees offering prayers to the Buddha. Me and Jin relaxed in the dark shade inside for a few minutes, trying to save ourselves from the baking heat of the outdoors.

Overall, the Wat and Palace are two of the highlights of Luang Prabang. The whole city is amazing, and these places only add to it, but certainly do not define the class and beauty of the city. The night market, stunning fruit trees, and riverfront walkways make Luang Prabang what it is, and without any of the elements, it would not be the same.