Laos forum

De gustibus non est disputandum.

"I am both simultaneously enchanted by this city and repulsed that it seems to exist solely for tourism". "it makes me feel like the city's primary purpose is to be a tourist destination instead of being a city in its own right"
Yet you are one of the tourists. There are a lot of Laos that live there, including monks. The monks are not there for tourists, they are there because of the temples.
I assume you visited the temples. Did you look at the Palace, the French colonial architecture, the small craft shops? Did you take a trip down the Mekong?

"The night market here seems to be a higher caliber than the ones in Chiang Mai"
Interesting; I have always thought the night market to be somewhat tacky. I know others like it, but it appears to have a lot of Chinese tat for sale.

" Phonsaven (plain of jars), I've heard, is fantastic for an hour or so and then very repetitive."
I love the POJ and am planning to go back again shortly. If you are remotely interested in history and culture, it is definitely worth a visit.

"Vientien (sic) I've heard is just not that interesting of a city."
I have lived in Vientiane for 5 years now and am not bored yet. There is a lot to see and do, and the food is excellent.

Do not listen to what "others" have to say. Surely you can make up your own mind. As I said in my opening, taste is not a matter to be argued about. Personally I find Disneyland incredibly boring, yet some people love it.
I guess it depends on what is interesting for you. I am sure my friend Mac on this site would agree with you, just as I would probably find a number of his choices of travel destinations boring.

Thanks for the response Rufus.

I don't at all begrudge LPB for the tourism - as you point out obviously I myself am a tourist here and engaging in that part of the city. But my larger point was that (and you rightly mention aside from the temples) from what I've seen the vast majority of the activities taking place in the city are solely for tourism. There does not seem to be much independent business between the Lao people here. In the ways that Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai or other towns in Thailand obviously had lots of tourism services but also had lots of local activities taking place that had nothing to do with tourists. In Chiang Mai I felt like a tourist in a city that clearly catered to me but was not solely in existence for me. Does that make sense?

Yes, the night market is tacky (especially the 2nd time through, as I saw last night - I'll never understand these markets where every 3rd stall sells the same t shirts or bags or scarves as the one before it). That said, I was just indicating that the goods sold seemed to be of a higher quality than most of the cheap dreck that I saw in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai (obviously there are exceptions).

Good to know your perspectives on PoJ and Vientiane. I understand your point about drawing your own conclusions, but when travelling that's not a luxury most people have. I can't go everywhere and decide for myself what is worth seeing and what isn't. I need to read and listen to others' experiences and decide what i want to give a shot. So I value every opinion i get, and make my decisions from there.

For something cultural you might try taking a Lao cooking class which could be fun and have future benefit when back home. The Tum Tum cooking school is on the Hobo Map and has been there for a while so it must be reputable.

Tourists are a funny bunch. Many seem to enjoy huddling together in relatively small areas. So it seemed to me in Luang Prabang . The area very close to the night market was packed. However, it was surprisingly easy to find places of relative solitude - even further up main street, or on the streets overlooking the rivers. Further out than that and very few tourists.

I have to agree on New Guy's take on the tourists showing no respect for the monks, though. We got up at dawn to make our way to the main street. We had seen the signs to not get too close and to not stick your cameras in the monks faces. On our cycle ride in the dark through town, we saw a small number of monks receiving alms from old ladies. We stayed a good distance away. At main street, though, all hell seemed to break loose and many tourists (predominantly Asian) seemed to have no qualms about photographing from a couple of feet, or touching the monks to stop them. One guy set up his camera to film himself doing some stupid dance with the monks passing a couple of feet away (Is this some sort of YouTube thing ???). We found the whole experience rather depressing; the monks we were told were considering leaving Luang Prabang because of this daily spectacle. Tourism at its worst.