Our original itinerary didn't include Laos, but we met so many travelers (in particular, Wendy and David) espousing the magic of Laos that we had to see it for ourselves.
A one-hour flight landed us in an airport so rustic that the road leading in and leaving the airport was dirt--welcome to Laos. In fact, all of the roads were either dirt or "under construction, completion date unknown." Known as the "most bombed" country in the world, Luang Prabang has, against all odds, retained its charm with French colonial architecture alongside ancient Lao templse. Deemed an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city is undergoing major "clean-up", we just hope Starbucks and McDonald's don't hear about it and decided to set up shop.
After settling into our hotel (never expect American standards) we decided to go looking for the Lao magic since it hadn't found us. We didn't have to look far once we stumbled upon a makeshift bar that overhung the Mekong River. The sunsets were so spectacular that we came back to this same spot three out of the five nights we stayed in Luang Prabang.
Since life is fairly simple in Laos, we spent six days in Luang Prabang visting the numerous temples, reading in sidestreet cafes (the French influence is easily noticeable), and sweating out every drop of beer we tried to hydrate ourselves with. It was hard to do much of anything except relax--at least that's what we told ourselves. |
