It's easy to see why so many nationalities—the Thai, the Chinese, the French, the Americans—found their way to Laos, and not just for its hushed beauty. Bordered by China to the north, Myanmar and Thailand to the west, Vietnam to the east, and Cambodia to the south, this strategically located landlocked Communist country (and former kingdom) of six million has seen much of the region's unhappy recent history of war and colonization played out on its turf. Despite its difficult past, however, Luang Prabang (which has just 30,000 people) resembles the fantasy of a sleepy Southeast Asian town, a fact not lost on UNESCO, which in 1995 declared LP (as it is called) a World Heritage Site and oversaw the restoration of the city's French colonial houses and 33 temples. So far, despite the tourists (now 125,000 a year and overwhelmingly of the backpacker persuasion), LP remains free of the tackier effects of globalization—although souvenir shops are beginning to appear on Xiang Thong Road, the town's main drag.

By about 5:30, you'll have checked in to the 3 Nagas (856-71-253-888; 3nagas.com; doubles, $75–$140), owned by a French-Canadian architect who's lived in LP for the past decade. After you're settled, go for a short stroll through the northern part of town. Along the way, you'll admire the lovely old houses—their distinctive peaked roofs and wood-shuttered windows shaded by monkeypod, banana, and trumpet flower trees—as well as the effortless tranquillity that the place exudes, as if in defiance of a painful past. You'll pass novice monks plucking at guitars, children playing in the gathering gloom, and then, one street down from your inn, the wide, pale expanse of the Nam Khan River, a tributary that feeds into the Mekong. Continue along the river—but for the occasional buzzing motorbike, the streets are so quiet you could walk down their centers—to Apsara (856-71-254-670; entrées, $6–$12), another of the town's inn/restaurants. Try the lemongrass-stuffed river fish for two with a side of the country's main crop, sticky rice—here a marbled blend of red, white, and black short grains—before crashing in your four-poster bed back at the hotel.

Day 5: Luang Prabang
You'll rise with the sun today—or at least with the roosters owned by the inn's neighbors, who get going at around 4:30 in the morning—and have breakfast downstairs on the umbrella-shaded patio outside the main house. At 8:30, your guide will meet you for the 45-minute drive to the Elephant XL Camp and Lodge (856-30-514-0614). Wear long pants and sturdy shoes—you'll be walking today along unpaved roads—and pack your swimsuit as well.

Once at the camp's headquarters, you'll descend a steep flight of steps to board a bamboo raft for the three-minute ride across the river. After disembarking, you'll take a seven-minute walk up a rutted incline that will open onto a clearing, where you'll find the camp's five elephants, all of whom used to be employed as logging beasts and now spend their days giving rides to tourists. You'll take a 45-minute lumber atop your elephant, through teak forests so thick the sun is blotted out, down a heart-clenchingly steep slope to the river, and up again, passing through clouds of flitting yellow and white butterflies.