01/08/2020
Luang Prabang, Laos This alluringly sleepy city along the banks of the Mekong was, like the rest of Laos, closed to tourists until the 1980s. When the doors opened and the first curious travelers stepped inside, they encountered a world that has changed little even to this day—with elegant French colonial architecture, steep stone stairs, heavy trees, and droning cicadas. Monks in orange robes weave through market-day traffic on bicycles, and the sky is filled with the plaintive call of birds. Many have called it utopia for good reason; glimpsing, above the jungle mists, is a soft skyline of pagodas and ornate spires which speak to a quiet and considered spirituality.