prabang

As a 32 year old Ghanaian woman living in Luang Prabang and studying as an ophthalmologist, this gives me some food for thought!

Vangvieng is super popular with backpackers and Luang Prabang is a bit of a tourist trap, but is still tiny and really beautiful.

Luang Prabang in Laos too, though maybe a bit overrated.

On one Kunming—Luang Prabang trip to refresh my visa stay in China, I had to remain in LP for 3-4 extra days because the road washed out.

I tried it again, explicitly asking for a trip of at least 5 cities north of Luang Prabang and it included southern cities like Pakse, Savannakhet, and Vang Vieng.

But I agree Vang Vieng was for me tourist hell, though if you get on motorbike and just ride along those karst mountains through villages and unpaved roads it was much better, the problem was the village itself mostly and tubing, I despise much more Luang Prabang full of retired package tourists everywhere you moved, that was truly much more disgusting than VV.

Queries like "Give me a 5 day itinerary for Luang Prabang, Laos" are a great way to get a broad overview of the main things to see in a new destination.

At the time, the best way from Kunming to Laos was to take a sleeper bus to Luang Prabang.

Asia is more diverse (Sydney, Gujarat, Luang Prabang, Jakarta) and maybe the USA just isn't.

In Laos, I met a young munk named Khao at the top of Phou si in Luang Prabang.