Royal Palace & National Museum — Attraction in Luang Prabang

I learnt nothing much informative or useful about the culture except the paintings about the recluse prince, which was quite a silly story, a prince who gave away his children then his wife too, then thankfully the children ended up with the king, who then abdictated the throne and let the prince come back to society and take over the throne . There were many gifts from other countries, the ones from Japan, China, Vietnam and the U.S. were slightly more refined. The boomerang from Australia made me wonder if it was a joke. Unless it was specially blessed by a tribe oe something. You'll see what I mean when you see it.

The bedrooms were very empty despite being very spacious. There were some very well done enormous portrait paintings of the king and queen etc. There were couches and seats everywhere but because they belonged to the royalty, you can't sit on them even though they were placed in spots that were very inviting. Some of the curation cards were not clear. I had to imagine whether certain words weren't misspelt English, but pronunciations of Lao words, which needed to be made more clearly, and elaborated a bit more on.

It's not that I didn't appreciate the red walls covered with glass Mosaic, or all the kings and queens furniture and clothes. I just couldn't care less about royalty. And their things shouldnt be made into a "national museum". I feel like this was very Versailles of them. This should just be called the Royal Palace , nothing else. I acknowledge that this has significance to Lao, but it isn't necessarily categorisable as a museum. I learnt very little...nothing about the political history of the country or of Lao...

I couldn't even go in at first because, no one at the ticket kiosk instructed that I actually needed to put my bag in the locker room, otherwise you wouldn't be allowed inside the Royal "Palace" itself. And then, the locker room also is a walk away in another building that you had to walk all the way to , and then lock your casual or precious belongings in a 1980s high school style locker.

As a "National" level "museum", there was no air-conditioning, no good lighting.

The only thing I do believe actually deserve some recognition was the banyan tree outside the "Palace". It's a beautiful tree and needed more "worshippers" to appreciate it.

I don't get the No Photos part. Photos...

government run museum beautiful but poorly organised run by a team of rude and unprofessional government officials.

-staffs seems to care more about their phone than answering your questions.

-about 5-6 police officers guarding the entrance scrolling their phone. some visitor can sneak in the palace compound without having to buy a ticket stroll around the garden area and got refuse entry at the main building where they checked your ticket again.

-you can only took a photo “of the building” no photo allowed inside the building. because it’s considered as a government building and you’re not supposed to take photos in the government building in a communist country.

-at the first building they suggested us to deposit phone and bag. Then you continue your journey to the main building passing multiple so called “attractions” and these attractions plaque have a English audio narration QR codes which suppose to be read by the phone.

-at the car exhibition room the guard weren’t there. the other group took a photo of the kings car. few minutes later the guard showed up and scolded loudly going through their phone and forcing them to delete the photos. they could have handled it better.

-exhibition pieces have no further information provided other than “sword” “crown” “throne” “stone tablet” im sure you get the idea.

-lady staff in the gallery hall bring their kids to work laying down scrolling ipad with speaker on.

-they let you in at 10:15 didn’t say anything about the lunch break and at 11:30 suddenly they said time out and closing all the windows and turn off the lights. you have to navigate your way out in darkness 🤷‍♂️

-beautiful and unique throne hall

I understand it’s only...

The Royal Palace Museum in Luang Prabang (also known as “Haw Kham” or "Golden Hall") was once Laos’ Royal Palace. It houses a lot of interesting historical items. Every item tells a story...so you will learn quite a lot about Lao history and about Laos’ royal.

Built in 1904, it features a blend of Lao traditional and French style. It was built for King Sisavang Vong and his family during the French colonial era.

After the death of King Sisavang Vong, the crown Prince Savang Vatthana and his family were the last to occupy the palace. After the revolution in 1975, the building was taken over by the government. The palace was then converted into a national museum and opened to the public in 1995.

Located in the city just the other side of the road from Phousi mountain, the palace is in walking distance of all main hotels and guest houses.

In the palace compound, there are several buildings including the Royal Barge Shelter, a conference hall, and Haw Pha Bang (a ornate pavilion) that houses the standing Buddha statue called Prabang. In the pass the Prabang statue and many other religious artifacts were housed in the palace, the front wing.

Also in the compound is a building that houses the royal car collection. It’s a small collection, mostly American cars from the 1950s to 1970s. Behind the garages is another building which has a gallery for rotating exhibitions.

The palace building can be visualized in three main parts: The front wing, consisting of reception areas; the throne hall (in the middle); and the back wing that was once...