Feature of the month: Elephant Festival Sayabouly The first AVANI property in Laos Rosewood Hotel Luang Prabang to open in March China rail through Laos underway
Feature of the month: Elephant Festival Sayabouly
This annual mid-February festival commemorates the nation's living icon. The two-day celebration, filled with elephant-related activities and performances, kicks off with an elephant procession and monks' blessings, followed by the election of the Elephant of the Year, which leads the second day's parade.
As a living icon with important symbolic connotations and historical associations in Laos, the elephant is an animal dear to the hearts of the Lao people. The Elephant festival is not only a celebration of culture but also a way of drawing attention to the endangered status of this charismatic species. The Elephant festival is a free, all-ages event with activities including a majestic elephant procession with up to 100 elephants, a traditional elephant Baci ceremony, fruit and flower offerings, monks' blessing, mahout and elephant shows, live performances from Lao and foreign artists, a night market and much more....
The first AVANI property in Laos
AVANI Hotels & Resorts will make its Laotian debut in Luang Prabang in March, with the rebranding of a property in this a UNESCO World Heritage town in northern Laos.
The 53-room hotel, in a building that dates back to 1914, is located on a narrow downtown peninsula at the joining of the Nam Khan and Mekong Rivers.
Currently known as the Azerai Hotel, the rebrand will be completed by March
According to the summary, the A - class Russian Speaking guides will have USD 10 increasing in half day/ full day/ airport transfer services and allowance for other province escorting.
When the AVANI Luang Prabang launches in March this year, it will be the ninth AVANI property in Southeast Asia, joining the growing portfolio in the region, which already includes five properties in Thailand, two in Vietnam and one in Malaysia.
Rosewood Luang Prabang should welcome its first guests, 14 March, after more than a year of delays.
Informed hotel sources, with connections in Luang Prabang, claim the hotel group is heading for a full opening by 14 March, just a month before the city celebrates its traditional New Year water festival.
Located on the southern outskirts of town, a 18-minute drive (6.6 km) from the downtown historical UNESCO World Heritage district, guests will be cocooned in a luxury environment a couple of stars higher than the current top hotel spots.
Its nearest hotel neighbours are Villa Santi Resort and Sabaidee Luang Prabang resort. Set well down a country lane, about 2 km from the Mekong River, the resort is close to a small farming village. The hotel’s fact sheet says it stands in a forested setting with a river and waterfall passing through the property.
The resort will have 23 spacious accommodations including deluxe rooms, suites, riverside and pool villas and tented villas occupying 74 sqm of space
China’s high-speed rail that will link Kunming in Yunnan province with the Lao PDR capital, Vientiane, will open in 2022. The raiway is also planned to have the stop at Luang Prabang the country’s most popular tourist destination.
The line covers a distance of more than 400 km with eight stations within the country. Eventually it will merge with a high-speed rail line running south through Thailand to Bangkok and the eastern seaboard port of Laem Chabang.
Work is already underway on 76 tunnels and 154 bridges passing through mountainous terrain in northern Laos.
Once the project is completed, passenger trains will travel at speeds of up to 160 kph, significantly cutting travel times for Chinese tour operators from a full day to just a few hours.
However, the tourism director reaffirmed there were no plans to offer Chinese travellers visa-free or visa-on-arrival travel to ease the flow of travel at the border.
Feature of the month: Elephant Festival Sayabouly
