Luang Prabang is named after the world-renowned Phra Bang Buddha, employed in ancient times to dispel the fears on the kingdom's subjects. Legend has it that Fa Ngoum, the monarch accountable for the creation with the Buddha, applied the golden image to spread Theravada Buddhism within the kingdom. The Phra Bang Buddha in Luang Prabang, Laos survived several attacks from foreign invaders along with civil unrests. These days, it remains a extremely revered object of devotion, close to the hearts from the Lao folks.
But this Buddha is not the only point to determine when in Luang Prabang, Laos. There are several tourist attractions worth the trip to this Asian nation. The town has long been peaceful, and tourists can come across serenity within the surrounding green hills along with the proud, gleaming temple roofs, just some of the remaining influences of French architecture. An astonishing view with the town is what the Phu Si Hill offers; its slopes are lined with distinct wats and at its peak sits That Chomsi, a really large stupa. Here is where by amazing sunsets is usually seen and enjoyed.
For a closer encounter with nature, the Tham Ting Cave, located north in the city proper, can provide satisfaction to any adventure-hungry soul. The cave, which might be reached by riding upstream on a boat, contain numerous outstanding rock formations, and at its last corner sits Buddha images placed by the really very first worshippers and preserved by their descendants. In front with the cave is really a treat for that eyes: the union of the Nam Ou River as well as the Mekong River, a hint at old military strategies. Travelers may well find the coffin-shaped Pha Ene Mount, situated about the left bank with the Nam Ou River, quite interesting – it represents a nearby folktale, that in the romance involving Kounlou and Nang Oua. Locals are best-equipped to tell this famous love story in Luang Prabang, Laos.
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Where would you go if you are given the opportunity? View and explore the most famous places around the world at famouswonders.com and check out tourist attractions in luang prabang
tourist attractions in laos="tourist attractions in laos" Where to see in South East Asia?
I would like to see the following countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea. Where are the best places to see in those countries? Also if someone could recommend a good route (in which order) I could see these countries? Papua New Guinea will probably be the last place I see as I will be travelling around in Australia afterwards and will be starting in Carins. Any suggestions will be appreciated. I am not interested in beaches, more the main tourist attractions
Indonesia - Only Bali - It is beautiful - I stayed in Legian - very very nice. Kuta Beach is a bit over developed. Recommend Bintang Beer and Nasi Goreng. Very laid back - Lots of Japanese and Australians.
Laos - Was in Vientiane - very nice - try to time it with a buddhist religious festival - as there are processions and it is very colourful and nice. I've heard Luang Prabang is very nice too - World heritage sight. Very Cheap and people are very friendly.
Cambodia - Siem Reap is great. Angkor Wat Temples are so beautiful. Phnomh Penh is not very beautiful and run-down.
Vietnam - Hanoi was very nice - Very Cultural. HCMC (saigon) is busier and bigger. The traffic was crazy - just keep moving when you cross the road!!
Malaysia - was in KL - not really worth a visit - maybe just for a stopover. Take the train to the airport from central station. Heard Langkawi is very nice to visit.
Thailand - Bangkok, Krabi and Chiang Mai. Phuket was a bit seedy.
I hope you have a great time - you can get lots of Cheap Flights from Bangkok (500 baht) to the airport from Thanon Sukhumvit. I usually stay at around soi 11 - - Its a great Location.
Dien Bien Phu Vietnam tough bus trip to Muong Khoua and to OudomXay Laos (Sept 2009)-Part 2
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Vietnam Tour Package - Tourist Places In Vietnam - Hanoi,Thai Binh,Cuc Phuong, Mai Chau,Hoa Binhanoi
Hanoi, Thai Binh, Cuc Phuong, Mai Chau, Hoa Binhanoi are some of the important tourist places in vietnam.There are many travel agents which provides a tour package to Vietnam.Akshaya India is one of the travel agent which provides the tour package to Vietnam which is cheap and best.It's a 4 night and 5 days tour. They have provided so many facilities in this tour package.
About Vietnam:
Vietnam is a country filled with captivating natural beauty and tranquil village life. Its highlands and rainforest regions, continue to yield new species and team with exotic wildlife. Its islands and beaches are among the finest in all of Southeast Asia, and its cuisine is very possibly the most delicious you will ever find. Over two decades have passed since Vietnam was officially united, and in that time it has done a remarkable job of healing its wounds. Today, this gracious and graceful country is an outstanding travel destination.
Geographically, Vietnam is shaped like a long S, and it stretches the length of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. Vietnam has a surface area of 128,000 square miles - making it about the size of Italy. China lies to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and the South China Sea to the east.
The country has three distinct areas: north, central, and south. The north is known for its alpine peaks, the Red River Delta, the plains of Cao Bang and Vinh Yen, enchanting Halong Bay, and historic Hanoi. Central Vietnam is characterized by high temperate plateaus rich in volcanic soil and by spectacular beaches, dunes, and lagoons. It is also the location of the ancient imperial city of Hue. In the South, visitors encounter modern life in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and the fertile delta of the Mekong River. In addition, Vietnam has a large continental shelf and an archipelago of islands.
Visas: Entry visas are obtainable at Vietnamese diplomatic missions and required for all visitors with valid passports irrespective of nationality. Please allow ten days for processing. Travel permits are only required for trips to off-limit areas such as border provinces, military bases and remote islands.
Summary:
Akshaya India provides the tour itinery for various places in Vietnam.Depending upon the place and the number of persons traveling the tour charges may vary accordingly. Vietnam tour package covers Hanoi tours, cuc Phuong national park, mai chau, pho minh tower, thai binh. Vietnam travel covers all these tourist attractions in vietnam.
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Akshaya India provides the tour itinery for various places in Vietnam.Depending upon the place and the number of persons traveling the tour charges may vary accordingly. Vietnam tour package covers Hanoi tours, cuc Phuong national park, mai chau, pho minh tower, thai binh. Vietnam travel covers all these tourist attractions in vietnam.
"The Loop" Mrconfused's photos around Tha Khek, Lao Peoples Dem Rep (konglor cave motorcycling)
Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was temporarily divided along the 17th parallel, pending internationally-supervised nationwide elections, intended to re-unite the country in 1956.
The demarcation line ran along the Ben Hai River, with a strip of no-man's land, 5 km wide on each side, known as the De-militarised Zone, or DMZ. All Viet Minh troops and supporters were supposed to regroup north, while the defeated French troops were evacuated.
The "anti-communist" government of the southern Republic of Vietnam, headed by the US-supported Ngo Dinh Diem, refused to hold the reunification elections, knowing that President Ho Chi Minh would have won overwhelmingly.
This led to a further 20 years of war - the American War. In reality, both sides of the DMZ were anything but de-militarised, and the border was easily circumvented. The Ho Chi Minh Trails to the west, and secret sea routes to the east, enabled the north to send supplies to the revolutionaries in the south, thus by-passing a string of American firebases overlooking the Ben Hai River.
Quang Tri and Quang Binh, the two provinces closest to the DMZ, were the most heavily bombed and saw the highest casualties, civilian and military, American and Vietnamese, during the American War.
Now, most bomb craters have been filled in, and there is a surprising green sea of rice, eucalyptus, acacia, pepper and rubber trees, but the terrible legacy of war still goes on:
US chemical weapons, such as Agent Orange, continue killing and affecting future generations with birth defects.
Unexploded bombs and landmines, lurking in the DMZ have, since 1975, caused many thousands of deaths and injuries, and continue to cause war casualties into the future.
'THE McNAMARA LINE'
One of the more fantastical efforts to prevent infiltration southwards, was US Secretary of Defence, Robert S. McNamara's proposal for an 'electronic fence' across the DMZ.
Known as "the McNamara Line", and running from the Vietnamese coast to the Mekong River, the idea was to use seismic and acoustic sensors to detect troop movements and pinpoint targets for bombing raids.
Though trials in 1967 met with some initial success, the costly plan was soon abandoned: the Vietnamese soon learnt how to 'confuse' the sensors and deliberately remove them and trigger them safely away from their trails.
Nor could massive bombing by artillery and aircraft defeat the North Vietnamese, who finally stormed the DMZ in 1972 and pushed the border 20 km further south.
So much firepower was unleashed over this area, including napalm and herbicides, that for years nothing would grow in the impacted, chemical-laden soil.
There was even an American plan to use nuclear bombs to create an impenetrable radiation zone across the DMZ. Fortunately, this did not eventuate, but the total tonnage of conventional bombing was equivalent to many times the power of the atomic bomb dropped by the US on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.
HIGHWAY ONE - NORTH OF HUE:"Road without joy"
American troops were not the first to suffer heavy losses in this region. During the 1950's, French soldiers dubbed the stretch of Highway 1 north of Hue as "street without joy", after they came under constant attack from elusive Viet Minh units operating out of heavily fortified villages along the coast.
QUANG TRI
In the 1972 Easter Offensive, revolutionary forces overran the whole area, liberating Quang Tri town (60 km north of Hue) from the South Vietnamese army (ARVN). They held it for months, while American B-52 bombers pounded the township and surrounding countryside with a tonnage of bombs equivalent to 8 Hiroshima nuclear bombs!
Eventually, it was retaken at huge cost to both sides, as well as civilians. The town was wiped off the map, and now little remains of the old Quang Tri Citadel, built in 1824 by king Minh Mang. The town of Trieu Hai has risen in its stead. The road and railway share a bridge over the Quang Tri River.
DONG HA Dong Ha town - the most northerly main town in what used to be South Vietnam - took over as provincial capital when Quang Tri town ceased to exist. It is 13km north of Quang Tri town. As a former US Marine Command Post and then ARVN base, Dong Ha was also obliterated in 1972 but, unlike Quang Tri, it has bounced back, largely due to its location at the junction with Highway 9, which leads to Laos.
DOC MIEU FIREBASE The American front line comprised a string of firebases set up on a long, low ridge of hills looking north across the DMZ and the featureless plain of the Ben Hai River.
8km south of the Ben Hai River and just off Highway 1, is this former American base, once part of 'the McNamara Line'. It has been extensively picked over by scrap-metal collectors, and recently by American veteran groups searching for MIAs (missing in actions). Most of the remains unearthed in recent years have been those of Vietnamese.
CON THIEN FIREBASE
This was America's largest firebase, first established by the Special Forces (Green Berets), and then handed over to the Marines in 1966. From here, their big guns could reach far into North Vietnam.
In the lead up to the 1968 Tet Offensive, as part of the diversionary attacks, the base became the target of prolonged shelling, followed by an infantry assault, during which it was briefly surrounded.
The Americans replied with everything in their arsenal, including long-range strafing from gunships in the East Sea, and carpet-bombing by B-52s. More than 40,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped around Con Thien, transforming the hills into a smoking moonscape. The revolutionaries were forced to withdraw temporarily, but then completely overran the base in the summer of 1972.
HIEN LUONG BRIDGE
15 km north of Dong Ha, Highway 1 drops down into the DMZ, running between paddy fields to the Ben Hai River, which lies virtually on the 17th parallel.
The original Hien Luong Bridge was destroyed by American bombing in 1967. At the time, it was painted ½ red and ½ yellow, a vivid reminder that this was a physical and ideological boundary separating the two zones of Viet Nam.
The present old iron-girder bridge was reconstructed in 1973, and officially re-opened in 1975 as a symbol of reunification. The current new bridge opened around 1999. The railway does not share the same bridge as Highway One.
Where Highway 1 crosses the Ben Hai River, there is a statue recording the dates of the temporary division in 1954, and the eventual reunification in 1975, and this famous quote from Ho Chi Minh:
"Vietnam is one country; the Vietnamese are one people. Rivers may dry up, and mountains may erode away, but nothing can change this truth." (Ho Chi Minh).
VINH MOC TUNNELS
About 16 kms from Highway 1, you can visit an amazing complex of tunnels, where over a thousand people sheltered, sometimes for weeks on end, during the worst American bombardments.
When American bombing raids north of the DMZ intensified in 1966, the inhabitants of Vinh Linh district began digging down into the red laterite soils, excavating more than 50 tunnels over the next two years.
Although they were also used by northern soldiers, the tunnels were primarily built to shelter a largely civilian population who worked the supply route from the Con Co Islands offshore.
Five tunnels belonged to Vinh Moc, a village located right on the coast. For two years, 250 people dug more than 2km of tunnel, which housed all 600 villagers over varying periods from early 1967 until 1969, when ½ decamped north to the relative safety of Nghe An Province.
The tunnels were constructed on three levels at 10, 15 and 20-23m deep, with good ventilation, freshwater wells and, eventually, a generator and lights. The underground village was also equipped with school, clinics, and a maternity room where 17 children were born. Each family was allocated a tiny cavern, barely larger than a single bed. These tunnels were built taller than the Cu Chi Tunnels.
In 1972, the villagers of Vinh Moc could finally abandon their underground existence and rebuild their homes, rejoined by relatives from Nghe An one year later.
26 Dong Khoi Street, Dist 1, Ho Chi Minh City 5 Nguyen Truong To Street, Ba Dinh Dist, Hanoi, Vietnam Website: http://www.LuxuryTravelVietnam.com
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Buddha Park - Great Attractions (Vientiane, Laos)
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