The serpentine road to Luang Prabang winds around mountains that rise above green valleys and rocky gorges, alongside ramshackle villages with no electricity and past fields of corn and rice. If you're not much of a daredevil, then don't get a window seat, because the bus has to navigate hairpin turns, with no guardrails, the wheels crunching over dirt shoulders only 30 cm away from dizzying drops

Once the bus rattles and belches into Luang Prabang, you'll quickly see why the 700-year-old city was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1995 for its melange of Buddhist temples alongside French colonial and Laotian traditional architecture. Because of building restrictions, the highest points of its skyline are stupas and coconut palms.

Near the banks of the Mekong River is the Laotian peninsula's most venerable temple. Wat Xien Tong was built in 1560 at the behest of King Saisetthathilat and remained under royal patronage until 1975, when the socialist Patet Lao Party took over the country, exiling the royals to a cave where they subsequently died. The multitiered roofs of the main chapel, along with the many Buddha images and the wildly colorful mosaic of the "Tree of Life" on the exterior, inspire as much artistic admiration as religious reverence.