Saturday, December 31, 2016

LUANG PRABANG'S NIGHT FOOD MARKET


5th December 2016 ~ On Luang Prabang's tourist map, there was this street labelled as "Night Food Market." The curious me went exploring along the short stretch of road in the evening and found rows of stalls selling variety of local food- either cooked or processed. It was located at the town centre near the night market area.


You could also choose to enjoy your dinner here, like locals do.




Some food looked similar to ours back home.













the river seaweed
Everything looked scrumptious but we did not try any. We had our own (instant) ration brought all the way from Malaysia to finish in our hotel rooms. 


Friday, December 30, 2016

WATCHING A DANCE THEATRE IN LUANG PRABANG


5th December 2016 ~ I was excited to find out I could watch a traditional dance performance during my stay in Luang Prabang while buying the tickets to the museum. The Royal Theatre Building is in the same compound with the National Museum and the Royal Temple. The cheapest ticket costs you 100 000 Kip and you could pay more to get better seats.


If you have watched dance performances in other countries like Thailand or Indonesia, the plot to the dance theatre is basically the same. The show is called Phralak Phralam - the national epic of Lao people. This is because the story is based on the old book of Ramayana. So there would be the same characters acting on stage especially the White Monkey. We even have the local version of Ramayana called "Hikayat Sri Rama" from which many traditional shows like "Mak Yong" and "Wayang Kulit" (shadow puppets) are based on.


The dance steps and the music beat were actually quite slow and repetitive, I had a feeling I could easily dance like those people. At times, thing might get a bit monotonous and they seemed to be dancing in repeated loops. However, I really enjoyed the live traditional dance and live singing. The singers had very good vocals.


















And here is the front facade of the Royal Theatre Building.

















the exhibits at the lobby






when your travel companions decided to visit the night market,
instead of watching a dance performance,
then selfie it was.
(When I was there) There were three performances staged on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The door was opened at 7:00 p.m. and the whole thing took about 1 ½ hours. If you are a culture vulture, then this should be something that you should not miss.

I will post videos uploaded on Youtube of the sections recorded during the dance theatre later. Or you can search for my channel on Youtube using the same name: Cikgu Zainal.


Thursday, December 29, 2016

VISITING LUANG PRABANG HANDICRAFTS FESTIVAL [DAY 2]




5th December 2016 ~ We went again to the same venue where Luang Prabang Handicrafts Festival was held. This time, people were already in their best traditional costumes or formal attires as there should be some sort of opening ceremony.



There were live demonstrations of traditional handicrafts making activities and more stalls selling local fabrics were already operating.










There was this traditional Lao house but I did not enter as I was too lazy to take off my shoes and I would have to pay to see the exhibits inside.








I was expecting for a (free) traditional cultural show during the opening ceremony but that never happened. 




The guy was from Ock Pop Tock Handicraft Centre which we visited yesterday and he was busy weaving a basket most probably.










The ladies selling food looked prettier that day and they were all wearing their national dresses, and most of them were clad in similar red shawls. We did not know the halal status of the food which looked delicious so we dared not try any.





As there was no sign of any cultural show to start, we left the place. At the same time, the ladies did not do any shopping as the original and beautiful Lao fabrics could be very costly, hence the short time spent there.