Lao People's Democratic Republic

Right: Tat Kuang Si, Luang Prabang Province.

Laos was a revelation to me. I wasn't expecting too much and initially I had only planned to spend about a week there if I had time but the reports coming from folk who had just come across (to Vietnam) were glowing and it really started to sound like my kind of place. Eventually I spent a month there and loved every minute of it.

Dateline: July 17, 2004 - June 15, 2004.
Route: Savannakhet, Vientiane, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang, Nong Khiaw by road. Phongsali via Muang Ngoi Neua and Muang Khua by river. Trekking in Muang Ngoi Neua and Phongsali province. Phongsali to Udomxai back through LuangPrabang, Vientiane, Savannahet, Pakse, Si Phan Don by road, and into Cambodia by boat on the Mekong River.

There is the scenery, and the cities are pleasantly small, but the real selling point to me was the people, so laid back and unassuming. Even the tuk-tuk drivers ask just the once and if you decline they just say "O.K." and go back into a reclining position, feet up on the handle bars as if to say..."I really just wanted to carry on snoozing anyway".

"I made it Ma, I'm on top of the world" Akha village, Phongsali Province.

The Laos People's Democratic Republic Facts:

area: 235,000 sq km
borders: China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand.
population: 5,500,000
ethnicity: Thai-Kedai, Austro-Asiatic (Mon-Khmer), Miao-Yao (Hmong-Mien), Sino-Tibetan, Chinese 2-5%, Vietnamese, North Indians, Pakistanis, Cambodians.