Luang Prabang

I've been in Luang Prabang for a few days now, it's a very charming town.
The buildings are an odd mix of lao, thai and faded french colonial styles.
It has some spacticular wats, but I haven't seen most of them yet.
Luang Prabang used to be the royal seat of the local Laos monarchy until a couple hundred years ago (I don't have the documentation with me right now).
In 1995, it was designated, a World heritage site by UNESCO for it's amazing preservation of classic South-East Asian look. This in contrast to most other major citites in the region who have evolved, industrialized, urbanized. Part of the reason is that this region was forgotten for a long time during the revolution, only to be re-discovered when the country re-opened up to tourism in the early 1990s.

So far, I've wondered around the non-touristic part of town trying to rent a scooter, but it seems to not be possible here for some reason.
We've also travelled by boat to some pretty nice villages and a very old cave containing a lot of old buddha statues.

The highlight so far has been however the exploration of the other side of the Mekong river, where some really quaint abandonned wats can be found,
A couple of which are over 100 years old. The cool part in the exploration is the evergrown vegatation surrounding them and their remoteness.
That occasion also signalled my first forray into the forest over here. One really cool aspect is the amazingly loud insect wildlife surrounding you. It's very intense and constant, almost overbearing.

I will certainly stick around here for a few more days as it will sound be the Water festival which signals the Laos New Year. For the occasion, locals will try to drench you in water with buckets and hoses. And no, foreigners are not exempt! I gotta watch out for the camera!

After this, I'm not sure where I will go, my tendency will be to head north to more remote and less-touristy areas of Laos. But who knows...