Luang Prabang

We found it. The town that most accurately and most peacefully speaks "Southeast Asia" to us is Luang Prabang, Laos. The town is at the juncture of the Mekong and Nam Chan rivers, and is considered the best-preserved town in the four-country region.

Its unfortunate 20th-century history affords it some intrigue as well; from '64-'73, the USA dropped over 2 million tons of bombs on the country, since the Ho Chi Minh trail (Northern Vietnam supply route) ran through Laos - making it the most heavily-bombed country per capita in the history of warfare.

Historically, the USA has had a negative or skewed impression of Laos - amidst the war in Vietnam, Secretary of State Dean Rusk stated that the country is merely "the wart on the hog of Vietnam." Today, it's not often considered as a tourist destination, and it's rarely worthy of mention in the news or in classrooms.

Well, we love it here. We've hiked to neighboring Khmu and Hmong hilltribes and waterfalls, we've roamed the markets, and we've visited a handful of temples, two of which were in caves.

We expected to hike through woods or forests on our excursion, but we found ourselves in the middle of a rainformest - tortuous vines, giant figs, banana trees, and bugs - lots of bugs. We didn't notice them until we sat down at a stream for lunch. Sara sustained some small bites on her sternum, but we're not medically concerned.

The hilltribe villagers were very polite - their children kept stalking us with caution, then when we smiled and waved, they'd laugh and disperse behind wells and baskets only to stalk again when we turned our backs. We were pleased with our guide's policy with the tribal visits: pay a small "tribute" to the official preservation fund for the tribes, but do not give or accept anything while in the village - this could encourage begging in the children (see: Cambodia).

The sky and sunsets here area bit hazy - we're told it's because of the dry season; farmers in the hilltribes burn their rice fields and there's no rain to bring the hazy particles back to the ground. However, it yields a campfire smell along the small villages - kinda nostalgic.