The Phosi market is by far the biggest market in Luang Prabang. Three quarters of it is covered, there are several hundred merchants of all kinds proposing a large variety of products. You can find there vegetable gardeners as well as small stalls selling clothes (always in the Chinese style), merchants for health products, school materials, hardware, etc.
You can find products that come from everywhere, from Laos (not very many manufactured products, except for the well known Beerlao), Chinese and Thai products as well as indirectly, everything that has any relationship whatsoever with (...)

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It is situated on Laos’s main road that leads to Vientiane, opposite the new sports stadium.
On an area of over several thousand square metres, there are many Chinese (that often don’t speak Laotian...) gathered to sell products from China, with whom Laos shares a border a few hundred kilometres to the North. Here Chinese is spoken, trading is done in the Chinese fashion, everybody writes and counts in Chinese !
You can find anything on this market; its a sort of a huge bazaar where everybody sells everything (saucepans in the middle of televisions, bicycle chains, tooth picks), its a (...)

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Closed for 3 years because of renovations, the Darat Market reopened its doors at the beginning of January 2008. It used to be a squalid but very animated souk and is now a rather deserted shopping mall in the centre of town. A sort of dirty industry has been replaced by ‘upper class’ shops; and the atmosphere which was the heart and soul of the town seems to be taking some time to come back into being.
There are no more packets of washing powder piled up to the ceiling in premises with flaking paint on the walls. In its place, we find luxurious craftsmanship, wine merchants, salesmen (...)

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The night market, in the centre of town, "opens its doors" every evening at round about 5 o’clock. This market was only supposed to last for a few weeks. It opened in December 2002, on the Occidental Christmas Eve; a few Hmongs and other craftsmen of the region proposed their products to tourists, who are always looking for traditional gifts. This market, finally, never stopped, and is for ever increasing in size so as to have, now, a few hundred stalls. The products range from chess games in ornamental stone to silk scarves, passing by embroidery, sculpture, more or less real opium (...)

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A few years ago, working in one of the villages around Luang Prabang, half a dozen Hmongs started selling their goods directly, on a square that had so far been unoccupied. Many people came to buy this authentic craftsmanship and embroidery sold by Hmongs who were very often dressed in traditional clothes ...
After a few years, this small meeting point became a covered market, which counted about a hundred stalls (covered by a few pieces of bamboo and motley pieces of cloth to protect people from the sun’s rays.)
Its central situation (opposite the New Luang Prabang Hotel) make it a (...)

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This is a site which must not be missed if you want to taste Laotian specialities, which you very often can’t find even in restaurants. The Lao’s come here regularly to buy their food (probably from laziness, so as not to cook ...) along with tourists who will find it typical, animated and very pleasant.
Numerous stalls, very often held by women, propose a large choice of prepared dishes, hot and cold, so that curious visitors can try out the local food, which he is not likely to find, even in typical restaurants. There are many interesting and exotic specialities in Luang Prabang. (...)

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This small market is the Laotian "supermarket" where they come to buy their fruit, vegetables and meat, which are proposed in showcases which are not always very hygienic.
Very active as from 8 o’clock in the morning, its a typical passing spot for Laotians who come to buy and/or to sell. There’s a lot going on ! You can find many unusual foodstuffs like ox-blood which is proposed in gelatinous cubes, serpents, bats, grilled insects (worms, grasshoppers, bee’s larvae, crickets, butterfly chrysalis), giblets covered with flies, caramelised pork’s head, and all sorts of leaves and plants (...)

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