The Most Beautiful City in Asia

On the night we arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, I saw a beautiful, old-style, Asian house (dark teak trim, pointed roof) with a sign outside saying that the German Consulate in Bangkok had built that house in homage to the most beautiful city in Asia...And it is truly beautiful here. Two rivers converge in this town: the Mekong and the Nam Kheon (spelling?). There are wats (Buddhist temples with gold and red trim) everywhere, parks to sit in, huge towering palm trees, monks in brigh orange garb, and beautifully restored colonial French-style and Asian architecture.

Laos has been "discovered" by the international tourist in the past 10 years or so, and Luang Prabang is definitely on the tourist trail. It is crawling with tourists and there are so many hotels, cafes, bars, tour companies and book stores catering to the international tourist...We are really enjoying sunny, lazy days here, and running into (and drinking Beerlaos with) travelers we have met throughout the region. We have picked up some good books, taken nice walks, and are resting before beginning on a reportedly rough, two-day boat trip to Thailand in a couple of days.

Prior to coming to Luang Prabang, we made a brief stopover in a hellishly over-touristed town called Vang Vieng, which had been over-run with young, budget travelers and the very un-Laotian enterprises catering them (restaurants that played endless episodes of Friends and the Simpsons and bars blaring crappy dance music). Vang Vieng is in an incredible setting, and we spent one day tubing down the river there, along with tens of way young tourists from Australia and Britain. It was actually quite fun. There were bars set up along the way, and people would paddle over to them in their tubes, stop for a beer or a bucket of whiskey and coke and paddle on down the river. A purely hedonistic scene that screamed of dangers to us old folks in our thirties! Can you imagine the liability of such an activity, if it were on offer to college students on spring break in Daytona or Myrtle Beach? Ummm...yeah, Vang Vieng made us feel OLD!