Luang Prabang is a completely different story, which I sensed as we were landing.

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Luang Prabang is about to change--an Aman Resort just opened, and more luxury hotels are in the works.

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Within an hour of arriving in Luang Prabang, I knew he was right.

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Since becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, Luang Prabang has attracted backpackers in droves, and they still account for the majority of tourists.

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The country north of the city of Luang Prabang is stunning.

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The 100 Waterfalls Trek can only be tackled as a one-day tour from Nong Khiaw by Tiger Trails, a Luang Prabang-based ecotourism company led by German founder Markus Neuer.

BBC: Northern Laos�� 100 Waterfalls Trek

The government buildings may have moved but the city, renamed Luang Prabang when the royal image of Buddha, the Pra Bang, took up residence there, remains the nucleus of Buddhist study in the country.

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For example, the peripatetic blogger couple Claire van den Heever and Iain Manley used their Kindle to collect free travelogues, one of which led them to the grave of 19th-century French explorer Henri Mouhot outside Luang Prabang in Laos.

BBC: Free e-books provide unlimited holiday reading

Getting to Nong Khiaw from Luang Prabang is an adventure on its own, with most people travelling three hours by songthaew (a pick-up truck converted to a passenger vehicle by adding a couple of benches along its side, allowing some 25 people to squeeze into its small frame).

BBC: Northern Laos�� 100 Waterfalls Trek

The trail, which starts near the small town of Nong Khiaw not far from the tourism hub of Luang Prabang, was really only discovered by tourists in 2009, though it has been used by locals for years as a direct route between the scattered settlements of the Nam Ou valley.

BBC: Northern Laos�� 100 Waterfalls Trek