The Markets of Luang Prabang

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The Markets of Luang Prabang

December 2007

32

Markets are a ubiquitous feature of Asian daily life, and in poorly developed countries like Laos, markets take the roll of supermarket, department store, shopping mall and fast food joint. There are different kinds of markets: fresh food markets, markets on which household items or clothes are sold, markets for cooked food, there were stalls that sold jewellery or electronic equipment, and of course there are the souvenir markets for tourists.

In particular I like night food markets - here, locals and tourists go and shop for their dinner. For small amounts of money, you can buy all sorts of local dishes (in plastic bags, banana leaves or bamboo canes), things you won't find in a restaurant, and you can sample a lot of things. But also on the other markets you can always find surprising or helpful things.

In Luang Prabang, there are several markets for daily shopping that supply food and household items, mainly to locals. If you're a Lao, you would buy your toothpaste or soap from a market stall rather than from a shop. There is also the Hmong market in town, where clothes and shoes are sold, and which transforms to a big souvenir market at dusk. And of course there is a night food market.


What would an Asian market be without chilies? This booth sells dried chilies.	Apparently this booth seems to be selling blue chilies. I've never heard of them before. But then, for a long time there also were no blue LEDs and blue gummy bears. Perhaps the three are related?	Compared to the colourful chilies, the remainder of the stall appears to be pale!


Chili powder is of course also sold on a good market.	Apparently you can also make a powder from the strange blue chilies.	The red chili powder before a colourless background.	OK green chilies normally aren't that green. And I wonder if their powder is green at all.	I don't remember if there are yellow chilies. But there is yellow chili powder ...

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