Can you believe it's 30 years since I fell for his charms? Nor me! To celebrate, we're taking a trip to Laos. We're visiting in the
dry season so it shouldn’t be too hot and sweaty (save when we head to the far south for a few days).
Covering a landlocked 91,430 sq miles, Laos isn't much smaller than the UK but, with fewer than 7m inhabitants, it's 1/10 less populated than us. I'm not expecting too many sky-scrapers! It's possibly the least well-known of SE Asian counties so, to get your bearings: its primary neighbour to the east is Vietnam, the Mekong forms much of the north-western border with Thailand (its Siamese neighbours have had much impact on its history), and China and Burma border to the north and Cambodia to the south.
Covering a landlocked 91,430 sq miles, Laos isn't much smaller than the UK but, with fewer than 7m inhabitants, it's 1/10 less populated than us. I'm not expecting too many sky-scrapers! It's possibly the least well-known of SE Asian counties so, to get your bearings: its primary neighbour to the east is Vietnam, the Mekong forms much of the north-western border with Thailand (its Siamese neighbours have had much impact on its history), and China and Burma border to the north and Cambodia to the south.
First stop: Vientiane, situated on the banks of
the mighty Mekong, economic centre and the capital since 1563; it
was chosen in preference to Luang Prabang to avoid the risk of invasion from
nearby Burma (that was successful but instead it suffered looting and was razed
to the ground by the Siamese 250 years later).
Then we’ll hop a short flight to the south, where small
towns such as Pakse and Champasak sit on the banks of the Mekong and a pre-Khmer site, UNESCO World Heritage site Wat Phou, is the big draw.
The flight back north will take us to Luang Prabang,
alsio a UNESCO site and erstwhile capital; in the 18th century, it was home to
65 wats and, these days, it's still the country’s prime attraction.
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