Laos, Brunei to Enhance Relations

   HANOI (May 5) XINHUA - Laotian Deputy Prime Minister 
Somsawat  Lengsavad said relations between Laos and Brunei 
are entering a new  stage after President Khamtay 
Siphandone's recent visit to Brunei, the  Laotian official 
news agency KPL reported Tuesday.
   Khamtay Siphandone paid a three-day state visit to 
Brunei from April 29  to May 1.
   During the visit, he and the Sultan of Brunei, Muda 
Hassanal Bolkiah,  discussed the possibilities of promoting 
bilateral economic and  commercial cooperation.
   The two sides reached an agreement on air transportation 
between Laos  and Brunei and signed notes of exchange on 
the exemption of diplomatic  and official visas.
   The Sultan stressed that Brunei would make an active 
contribution to  mutual cooperation and assistance with the 
Laos within the framework of  the Association of Southeast 
Asian Nations (ASEAN), which also groups  Indonesia, 
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, 
and  Vietnam.
   The Sultan will pay a state visit to Laos late this 
month, KPL  reported.
   

Laotian City Center of Tourism Bid  

By LINDA EHRICHS  
   LUANG PRABANG, Laos (AP) -- More monks than tourists 
walk the quiet streets of this ancient royal city, but not 
for long if the government has its way.
   Officials want to turn Luang Prabang into a major 
tourist draw and hard-currency earner by using its lost-
city charms to attract visitors who seek an elusive piece 
of old Asia.
   The center of Laotian civilization through the 18th 
century, the 1,000-year-old city is the centerpiece of a 
national tourism campaign for 1999 that the government has 
dubbed "Visit Laos Year."
   With a population of only 4.5 million people, Laos hopes 
to attract about 1 million visitors next year -- almost 
double the current number.
   "As a poor country, we must preserve the heritage, but 
we absolutely must also develop and make money," said 
Manichan Phomokhot, an architect working on preserving 
Luang Prabang.
   Touted as the best-preserved city in Southeast Asia, it 
was recently listed as a World Heritage Site by the U.N. 
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
   Its unspoiled charm reflects the rest of Laos, long an 
Asian backwater due to landlocked, mountainous geography 
and socialist isolation imposed by communists who came to 
power after the Indochina conflict in 1975.
   The government is slowly opening up Laos, whose 
isolation has preserved the beauty, calm and friendliness 
that wide-open Thailand next door was noted for 25 years 
ago -- before mass tourism fueled the sex industry and 
brought condos and giant hotels to once pristine beaches.
   Laos remains pure by comparison. In Luang Prabang, 
luminescent light at dawn and dusk glints off gold-studded, 
centuries-old Buddhist temples. At 5:30 a.m., Buddhist 
monks walk barefoot through the silent streets to collect 
alms from kneeling worshippers.
   In the 14th and 15th centuries, the city was the capital 
of Lane Xang, the Kingdom of a Million Elephants. The city 
gets its name from the Prabang image, a 112-pound gold 
statue of the Buddha made in Sri Lanka and given to King Fa 
Ngum in 1396.
   With only 25,000 residents, it won't take many tourists 
for Luang Prabang to feel taken over. Some 20 guesthouses 
and 10 hotels have opened in the last five years, plus 
dozens of restaurants and small shops selling crafts and 
souvenirs.
   Tanja Porter, an Australian volunteer working at the 
local museum, says the quiet stretch of road near her house 
has seen a bakery, wine shop, restaurant and book shop open 
in the year she's lived here.
   "It's changed a lot," Porter said.
   Still, Luang Prabang remains a city without a traffic 
light, where temple steeples and stupas rise above 
buildings that never rise above two floors.
   John Cuthbert, an Australian tour guide whose company 
organizes tours from the traffic-choked frenzy of Bangkok, 
Thailand, says he's never had a client who didn't like 
Luang Prabang. Laotians still greet foreigners with genuine 
smiles. Children even embrace them.
   But, he concedes, tourism development most likely means 
"there's an expiry date on that smile."
   Controls limiting entry of foreigners to Laos are 
gradually relaxing. Last June, the government began letting 
visitors obtain visas upon arrival in Laos, and flights to 
Luang Prabang are often booked weeks ahead.
   There are no direct international flights to the city, 
however, and foreigners must still register with local 
immigration police on arrival. No one is allowed to stay 
the night outside city limits, and bandits have sometimes 
attacked and killed travelers using the road from the 
capital, Vientiane.
   Even with those controls, though, tourism is Laos' 
fastest-growing foreign-exchange earner.
   The number of tourists has increased more than tenfold 
since 1991. Revenue has grown at twice that rate, reaching 
$43.5 million in 1996, the last year full figures are 
available.
   In addition to touting Luang Prabang, authorities plan 
to step up promotion of tourist sites like Wat Phu, near 
the southern city of Pakse, and to open up remote spots 
like an underground river south of Vientiane.
   Philippe Coluci, a French consultant to the UNESCO 
heritage project, is confident Luang Prabang won't be 
destroyed.
   "The understanding of heritage and the need to preserve 
it, it's happening," Coluci said. "It's about educating a 
society on how to go about the work of preservation and 
their role in it."