I Love You, Luang Prabang

I'm crazy about Luang Prabang. It's a small, quiet city of only about 50,000.  Things move slowly there; I was repeatedly told by locals that PDR formally stands for "People's Democratic Republic", but is also an anagram of the city's informal motto: "Please Don't Rush". So I didn't. I stayed there for over a week. 

The historic area of the city is sandwiched between the Mekong:

This village and little temple is directly across the river from the city center. That's how small and centralized Luang Prabang is. 

...and the winding Nam Khan River:

You can walk from one river to the other in under twenty minutes.

I spent most of the time just wandering around. The entirety of the historic city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so there's plenty to see. It's full of graceful European-inspired architecture:

And ornate temples around every corner to remind you that you're in Asia:

This little one was just up the street from my hotel.

Actually the Royal Palace Museum, in case there are any fact checkers out there.

At a leisurely stroll (there was no powerwalking in that heat) one inevitably stumbles on things like antique cars that may have dated from the French occupation:

And trees by the river that were colonized so thoroughly by some kind of grass that they ended up looking like muppets.  

If you haven't been there, you need to put it on your list of places to go. It will not disappoint.