Luang Prabang was an ancient capital located in northern Laos, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Center in 1995. It is a well developed town, fusing traditional Lao urban architecture with the French colonial architecture. Laos is the only landlocked country in the area and has been isolated from the rest of the world, called “Asia’s forgotten country”. It was designated the Least Developed Country and one of the poorest countries.

We cruised down the Mekong River to see the Pak Ou Caves (lower center) and explored the night market with Wat Luang Prabang in the background.

Shown above are terraced rice fields, which account for 50% of the national agricultural output.

Primary school classroom at Xiengmen Village, along Mekong River. The kids were quite animated. See the video at the end to see how the rooms sound during classes.

We also visited a school for monks with some 300 students. Like in many schools, you have enthusiastic students as well as bored ones. There was even one young monk playing video games in class (lower-center).

We visited a couple of local weaving villages on our cruise down the Mekong River. Although the villages were relatively poor, the people seemed genuinely happy to see visitors.

Shots from local villages, Phousi Market, and photo of actors at Vat Xiang Thong Temple where a documentary was being filmed about the temple (center-right).

More scenes of people from the local villages. Kids are accustomed to getting their pictures taken due to the proliferation of mobile phones.

We will close our Laos report with a short video of Laos monks and kids learning to read.