After spending 36 hours in Hanoi, Saigon and Phnom Penh, the New York Times recently took a trip to Luang Prabang, a tiny, UNESCO-protected town which the paper describes as full of “low-key pleasures”.
From temples and cafes to textile galleries, elephant sanctuaries, spas and a hidden yoga-volleyball-DJ hangout-cafe, Luang Prabang sounds like the stuff of a proper vacation. The free bicycle rentals offered by most hotels only help to affirm its languid pace, while well-preserved temples and French colonial villas make this one of the few destinations in Southeast Asia unsullied by opportunist tourism development.
With an expanded airport and a highway under construction between its sleepy streets and the Lao capital of Vientiane, Luang Prabang is sure to see more and more tourists in the near future, but for the moment it sounds like an urban paradise, unlike our beloved but frenetic Saigon.
[Photos via The New York Times]
