Luang Prabang is the cultural gem of Laos, a place that, like its people, is both proud of its identity yet rooted in its practice of kindness and humility. To walk the streets is to stroll through a panoramic in history – dozens of Buddhist temples stand amid rows of French colonial architecture, the dark jungle hardwoods swallowed by low canopies of Bougainvillea, drooping flowers pink and white. A harmonious duality exists on this wedge of forested land, bordered by the fabled Mekong and its little sibling the Nam Khan, and when the sun dips to the jungle and paints stripes of ruddy orange light across the tents of the night market, a sleepy town turns bustling, the streets bubbling over with the murmurs of locals and tourists alike.