Muang Xay

Province

Muang Xay (Lao ເມືອງ ໄຊ, also: Oudomxay, Lao: ອຸ ດົມ ໄຊ ) is the capital of the province of Oudomxay in northwestern Laos.

Naming

According to legend, the inhabitants of the village of Ban Cheng were in 1323 in the forest to cut bamboo. As they made from the bamboo fishing utensils, they saw a monk from the thickets of the forest to come to them, who had retired long ago there to exercise themselves in meditation. He asked the villagers what they were doing, and they replied, they established fish traps. The inhabitants offered the monk to feed. Because of this encounter, the village name from the old name " Takka Sila " to " Muang Xay " ( " Xay city ") was altered because the name of the monk was Pakxay.

History

In 1987 Muang Xay Oudomxay capital of the province instead of Ban Nahin was.

Local history books, according to settled around 1260 in Oudomxay Lao Ly, who came from the region Sipsongpanna ( " twelve thousand rice fields " ) in southern China. They founded a village called Ban Luang Cheng ( " big village "), which laid the foundation for today's Muang Xay. Ban Luang Cheng is now a district of Muang Xay, briefly called " Ban Cheng ."

Infrastructure

Oudomxay is connected to Luang Prabang on the National Road 13.

The city has a domestic airport (IATA: ODY, ICAO: VLOS ), which is served by Lao Airlines. Three times a week there are flights to and from Vientiane. The airport is located five minutes drive from the city center.

The supply of electricity is said to exist in the city.

Demography

In the city live mainly Lao Loum, but the influence of the - throughout the province represented about 60% of the Khmu ethnic group - is very noticeable. Many had moved to from villages ethnic Khmu live and work in Muang Xay, as in the city better earning opportunities exist than in the countryside. The Hmong ( represented throughout the province to about 15 %) dominate the skyline. Thus, about typical Hmong - products, for example colorful textiles, sold in the market building. Many women from the surrounding villages come - often on foot - to Muang Xay to sell the products generated by them to urban markets, because there they can obtain a higher price.

Many families in the surrounding villages of different ethnicities to send their children to a school in the provincial capital. The path that is often many miles, the students each morning either on foot or by bicycle or visit the so-called " Ethnic School ", a boarding school for children from outlying villages.

In Muang Xai, there are many Chinese immigrants who dominate the cityscape by restaurants and a Chinese market.

Geography and climate

Muang Xai is situated in a valley between hills. Two opposite hills rise within the city, on which the " Oudomxay Museum " and a temple is built with a stupa.

In the province of Oudomxay has a temperate monsoon climate. Due to higher altitudes there is a larger annual temperature fluctuations and a cooler dry season than in the rest of the country. Especially in the cold months (October to January), there are large temperature fluctuations between day and night, since location between hills at night a blanket of fog over the city sets, which dissolves in the course of the morning due to Oudomxay. The blanket of fog holds the sunlight, so it will be warm in the winter until about midday.

The river flows through Nam Kor Muang Xay.

Tourism

In Oudomxay efforts have been made for several years to promote the burgeoning tourism and to use as a way to minimize the poverty population. Since 1997, a tourist office, which is supported since March 2005 by the German Development Service (DED ) exists - with the aim to strengthen the income of particular rural communities and small businesses through tourism and thereby contribute to the protection of natural resources. In August 2007, the tourism office for Regierungssabteilung ( " Provincial Tourism Department" ) has been charged.

Development

Due to the location Muang Xais as the most important transportation hub in northern Laos (the only road leading south to the north about Muang Xay ) the province in recent years by tourists was mainly visited in transit, for example, from Luang Prabang to Luang Namtha.

The average length of stay of tourists in the provincial capital was low. Muang Xai had the image of a tourist undeveloped cross - town, which was reflected in 2004, especially in the representation of the place in popular guidebooks.

For some years changed that image. The Oudomxay province is now seen more as a province in which you can experience the "original" Laos individually, particularly in terms of ecotourism. For several years, the tourist office in Oudomxay guided trekking tours, cooking classes and a workshop in traditional papermaking. In Oudomxay there are now two travel agencies, one of which offers guided bicycle tours through Laos.

According to the " Statistical Report on Tourism in Laos 2008 " of the " Lao National Tourism Administration ", the number of tourists in Oudomxay has increased from 2001 to 2008 of about 18,600 to about 102,000. Approximately 17% of the approximately 1.7 million tourists visiting Laos in 2008 came therefore also to Oudomxay. According to the report Oudomxay has eight hotels and about 52 Guest Houses. Most of these are located, followed by river transport hub Pak Beng in the provincial capital of Muang Xay.

Potential

Overall, in the province of Oudomxay are 1286 beds available (as of 2006). In 2008, the occupancy of these available beds has been at around 60 % ( compared with Luang Prabang: 73%).

The previously untapped tourism potential Oudomxay is particularly the example of the recently rediscovered cave " Chom Ong " clear:

The " Chom Ong Cave ", 45 kilometers from Muang Xay, is the largest known cave in Northern Laos. It has a length of more than 16 kilometers, ceiling heights of up to 50 meters, one running in the cave river and is surrounded by various caving magazines as "unique " ( " exeptionelle " ) and as the "most important discovery and the main attraction " in northern Laos referred to.

The road conditions on the way to the village of Chom Ong Thai, from which one can reach the cave in an hour-long walk, however, are very poor, especially in the rainy season. A day for arrival and departure must therefore ever be scheduled to the difficult access to the cave.

As for other activities such as trekking tours in ethnic minority villages ( for example, the Khmu ) are these infrastructural constraints not know why they are a little more used.