CARLA SOMMERS DISCOVERS THE CHANGING FACE OF LUANG PRABANG

IN TOURIST GUIDES, the French sometimes romantically refer to Luang Prabang as “The Sleeping Beauty”. Indeed, not long ago, an International Herald Tribune reporter suggested that the most exciting event that she had seen in town was the confrontation between an inquisitive dog and a monitor lizard in the main street. But how things are changing…

Admittedly, Luang Prabang's slow crawl to modernity may not be competing with the manic pace of change in other Asian cities, nor even with its own capital, Vientiane. The beast, nonetheless, is waking. According to the most recent figures, about 140,000 people – or seven times the town's estimated population – visit the city over a one-year period. And with tourist accommodation virtually full from November to April, local woodworkers and bricklayers are in business all year round, building new hotels and motels to cater to the rapidly rising demand.

BUILDING BLOCKS

All over this UNESCO-preserved town, brick venelles (alleys or stairs linking the main roads that run perpendicular) are being freshly-laid and timber sawn, ready for the latest influx of smart hotels, guesthouses and cafés. The rebuilding of the Dara market started in the spring, although enquiries as to when it may reopen are often met with shrugs and giggles.

However, according to long-time resident, Laurent Rampon, controlled urban development in this former Royal town has always been on the books. Indeed, new buildings and infrastructure are vital to cope with any town's growth.

Rampon should know – for some years, this jovial Frenchman worked with Heritage House (also known as La Maison du Patrimoine) which acts as the local arm of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

He is now working as a consultant. His new focus is a brickworks business producing traditional bricks that adhere to conservation specifications. Easy money, one might think. Not so, he is up against 30 or so local brick producers for whom profits – not necessarily UNESCO specifications – matter most.

In Luang Prabang, Rampon talks of how UNESCO's role, amongst many other things, has been to try to support this growth within the framework of strict controls. The rules that the body has implemented were meticulously researched to ensure the preservation of authenticity. Both the urban preservation and development took into account ancient Laotian social, architectural and religious mores; these governed the position of homes, balconies and kitchens. But even so, as he admits sadly, some regulations are not being followed as closely as they should be.

Having said that, Luang Prabang is certainly not being spoilt by the unfettered change that has typified Asian expansion. Similar heritage centres such as Beijing or Hong Kong have failed to conserve any form of their precious, vernacular architecture.

Down in the centre of this sleepy town, a suspended pedestrian bridge now links the banks of the Nam Khan river. Not a new idea, as it turns out, but the re-installation of an ancient by-way that had once existed. It is rumoured to remain throughout the tourist high season, and a small fee of 4,000 kip is charged to cross it.

CHANGING FACES

At JoMa, a jolly member of staff wearing the name tag “Deborah” tells me how tourist traffic is definitely on the up. The popular café has seen a giant leap in customers since September 2006.

“It's not just the same faces either,” says the chatty resident. “Many tourists coming here are elderly; some are European or American retirees in their 60s. They seem to be travelling on their own and taking time off to cover quite a bit of the region and see things at their own pace.”

Deborah describes how JoMa is also becoming a popular haunt for the new Lao middle classes, such as owners of guesthouses who have benefited from the tourism boom.

“Sure, we get locals in here, especially pregnant ladies. They come in to escape the heat and grab some coffee while enjoying the air-conditioning at the same time!”

She points to three Asian men sitting talking over cups of coffee. “Those guys are part of the Korean-Lao construction company building the new University,” she says. “They're regulars.”

When asked about their progress, the men tell me they hope to finish the new campus by June or July. Already, teachers have been undergoing training in Seoul.

New generation of tourists? New middle classes? A new university? Change may not be so visible to outsiders, but like the city's Buddhism, it is definitely a force that underpins every facet of life here.

PLANS TO EXPAND

Just a few metres away from JoMa, luxury hotel Maison Souvannaphoum is running so full that it is looking to extend its existing property beyond its magnificent gardens. The youthful Singaporean General Manager, Richard Neo, who only joined the hotel in the latter part of 2006, explained that once permits have been obtained from Heritage House, the hotel – a former royal residence – will develop the fallow land beside the existing elegant property.

Nearby, the small but equally delightful Satri House, also a former royal villa, will soon have enlarged its handful of suites and added a new wing – all in keeping with its rustic charm, splendid garden and pool.

Staying in this fascinating, wonderful neighbourhood, clustered between Wat Mahathat and Samsenthai Road, there are further signs of improvement. Colonial homes are being repaired and whitewashed; small, 1930s bungalows are spruced up.

COMING HOME

The nearby hospital plot on Samsenthai Road is rumoured to have been bought by a well-known luxury hotel chain. Due to UNESCO rules, the resort will not be able to alter the structures much, but seeing as the place is low-rise and sprawls over a huge acreage, the potential for something elegant is enormous.

However, this does raise questions. For example, will this mean an awkward void being filled only by moneyed foreigners whose transience and physical isolation within the walls of luxury compounds defy the very essence of the traditionally, close-knit Lao community, whose homes were once built with verandahs actually facing one another? Not necessarily.

Down on the Nam Khan and near Wat Xieng Thong, it is evident that many locals are rebuilding their family plots, selling homes or renting houses to foreigners. Although, returnee Laotians from all over the globe are also quite clearly as much a part of this new wave of buyers of maisons secondaires or holiday homes.

Just down a small alley leading to the local heritage information centre, Lao-Canadian artist Th ép Thavonsouk has recently opened his Saaifone Contemporary Gallery in a two-storey building that was once a greasy, motorbike workshop. His vast canvases of reds and greys look entirely at home on the now stark white walls.

He seems happy at the prospect of living his winters in Luang Prabang after spending three decades overseas – not just to escape the bitter climate of his hometown, Calgary, but to be close to old friends and his ageing mother, who still lives in the Lao capital.

His lifelong Franco-Lao friend and photographer, Ratsamy Viphakone-Szafran or “Mimi”, hopes Thép will be involved in an enormous, five-room riverside guesthouse she is planning to open called Saynam (flowing waters), where artists can take a break and have a free space to show their work.

It appears hugely important to many successful overseas Laotians that any re-investment in their home country not only profits their bank account balances, but their culture too.

Time and again, a Laotian who may have lived overseas for 30 years or so will talk about setting up a non-profit centre or a project aimed at helping the less advantaged.

Nithakhong Somsanith (a member of the former Lao Royal family) or “Nith” is doing just that, working out of a tiny, wooden stilt house, opposite Thavonsouk's gallery. His small craft centre, Heuan Puang Champa, is helping to revive the virtually extinct Laotian arts such as gold embroidery and couching; traditional lacquer-making; flower-arranging and the art of Laotian classical music and dance. His amazing handiwork is on public display at the National Museum – the former Royal Palace – where, he recounts, his blue-blooded relatives once lived.

NEW SPACES, NEW PLACES

Of late, the National Museum has begun to use more of its refurbished public spaces for exhibitions; the gifted Hans Georg Berger has recently shown his series of Buddhism-inspired images in the critically-acclaimed exhibition: The Quiet in the Land .

Another novel style of exhibition hitherto unseen in Luang Prabang is the Khao Niaw (Sticky Rice) exhibit at the Kopnoi boutique, which runs all the way into September.

This visually sumptuous display about all aspects of the Laotian staple is the creative collaboration of artist-entrepreneurs, Simon Côté and Isabel Dréan who hail from Quebec. Children, adults, tourists and locals alike will find it all tremendously enjoyable and stimulating – and best of all, it is free!

When the bright-eyed photographers Andrée and Marie Springer from Northern France, visited their son working in Vientiane, they also discovered Luang Prabang. A year before Andrée's husband Marie's retirement was due, they decided to pack up their home in France and head for Laos.

“We thought, why should we hang around? If we keep on working so hard, we'll just end up sick with huge hospital bills; it's time to slow down and spend that money on enjoying life!” she says, about their decision to leave their homeland.

Like many expats, they took a relatively standard 20-year lease on a house on Sisavanvong Road. It doubles as a home, darkroom, craftshop and an exhibition space called Kinnaly Gallery, where their distinctive black and white art covers the walls. By March, they had doubled the space, expanding their business into a former internet café next door.

Further up the same street is Tamarind boutique, one of the newer shops in this busy part of town, selling modern silk and linen fashions for women and men, as well as some pretty jewellery.

A five-minute walk away is the beautifully restored colonial exterior of Laha Sinh, the Savannakhet-based co-op brand which opened its Luang Prabang branch in Autumn 2006, stocked with awesome, naturally dyed cottons in varying shades of indigo blues, rose pink, and soft green. The shop sells clothing, linen and tableware of all shapes and sizes.

CHANGING TASTES

As properties are getting redeveloped, even some of the most well-established restaurants are moving. Since it won praise in the Lonely Planet Guide , Maly, the roadside foodies' heaven, is one victim of such change – or should that be success? Luckily, Madame Maly has not moved too far away, on a larger plot just around the corner on Visounnlath Road.

Food lovers will also be intrigued to hear that The Apsara's manager, Ivan Scholte, is currently considering a new riverside project, one kilometre away from the town centre in a quiet village on the Nam Khan. Although Scholte remains tight-lipped about the venture “for fear of jinxing it”, he says he hopes it will capture the same “Indochina chic” for which his small hotel is already known. The new project could give him a pool, a new eatery and some extra rooms – his boutique hotel is booked solid for half the year.

Down near the Mekong river, the saws and bricklayers are busy with restorations and extensions. The well-loved Sala Prabang hotel now has a smart annexe, just a few feet from its main reception and overlooking the water.

Guests to the annexe will not be able to avoid the sight of the town's latest craze, the French game, boules , being played across the road, on even the smallest patch of dirt along the riverside. According to Xang, a young van driver, the town's young men are huge fans and compete as fiercely as any Frenchmen.

For those longing for a bit of peace, Lao Spirit's newest venture is an eco-resort and elephant lodge several miles out of town. Set in lovely gardens bursting with blossoming hibiscus, small stone villas equipped with outdoor showers and wooden verandahs overlook towering mountains and a river.

On the other bank are the grass-roofed huts of their mahout camp, where one can stay and take some driving lessons from the experts – the focus is not how to drive a vehicle, of course, but how to deftly manoeuvre a two-tonne elephant!

While Westerners have a hard time coping with change, Buddhist precepts proffer that such change is simply an unavoidable part of life. It is an outlook that may keep Luang Prabang's people in good stead for the future.

And as long as today's residents don't lose sight of the town's Buddhist forefathers' vision and values, it is unlikely these changes can erase the charm of this once dormant town. A town that was – once upon a time, at least – called Asia's Sleeping Beauty.

CONTACT DETAILS

JoMa, Chao Fah Ngum Road, tel +856 (0)71 252292; Kinnaly Gallery, 64 Sakkarine Road, tel +856 (0)20 555-7737; Kopnoi, Phommathay Road, +856 (0)71 260248, www.madeinlaos.com; Laha Sinh, Sisavanvong Road, tel +856 (0)20 552-6398, www.lahasinh.com; Lao Spirit, Xien Lom, tel +856 (0)30 514-0111, www.lao-spirit.com ; Maison Souvannaphoum, Chao Fah Ngum Road, tel +856 (0)71 254609, www..coloursofangsana.com ; Maly, Ban Phamahapasam, tel +856   (0)20 564-9565 ; Saaifone Contemporary Gallery, off Sisavanvong Road, tel +856 (0)20 780-3253 , www.junerain.com ; Sala Prabang, 102/6 Ounkham Road, tel +856 (0)71 252460, www.salalao.com ; Satri House, 57 Phothisarath Road, tel +856   (0)71 253491, www.satrihouse.com; Tamarind, Ban Wat Nong, tel +856 (0)20 777-0484 ; The Apsara, Kingkitsarath Road, tel +856 (0)71 254670, www.theapsara.com