A brand new day breaks to the rhythmic shuffling of naked toes upon the bottom.
Like an apparition from centuries previous, a procession of a number of hundred shaven-headed monks emerges by way of the daybreak mist, snaking its method by way of the sleepy slim streets. Buddhist locals line the path to make their day by day choices of rice and fruit because the monks file by with their alms bowls. Then, as silently as they appeared, the monks disappear again inside their temple partitions, their saffron robes billowing softly behind them.
This daybreak ritual in Luang Prabang is only one side of life that lends the small metropolis its ethereal, forgotten air. Situated within the nation of Laos, 370km (229 miles) northwest of the capital, Vientiane, Luang Prabang lies in a phenomenal valley on the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers.
That, throughout elements of the twentieth century, the borders of Laos have been sealed to foreigners, mixed with its shimmering temples and historical spiritual aura, has ensured the city has remained one of the crucial cloistered, unspoiled locations on the planet.
