I have been fascinated with Laos for many years and for a pretty unusual reason. I grew up in the County of Laois in Ireland- close in spelling but pronounced Leash. Those Irish vowels will catch you out every time.
Laos is one of the 4 recognised communist countries in the world along with China, Cuba and Vietnam. And while this may sound strange, it feels more communist than Vietnam for example, but there is plenty of free market trading going on everywhere and our western notions of what communism look like are challenged.
Laos was known in the 14th century as the Kingdom of a Million Elephants and around this time Theravada Buddhism was made the state religion. For hundreds of years after this it was in conflict with Siam (now Thailand) as well as other neighbours and lost much of its land over the years. For decades Laos was a French Protectorate and the influence is very obvious both in food and architecture. In 1953 the country gained full independence and was governed by a constitutional monarchy but this ended in 1975 with the installation of the communist regime.
But the worst period in the history of Laos was in the 1960-1970's during what we call the Vietnam war. More bombs were dropped on Laos during that conflict than all of the munitions combined in World War 2- over 2 million tons in total or a bomb being dropped every 8 minutes for 9 years. This was an attempt to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail which was ultimately fruitless as the trail was under the ground.
So with that history of conflict and loss, what's Laos like today? It's hard to describe in many ways- it's like a dusty version of Thailand. The richness of the heritage is everywhere to be seen and while it isn't disrespected in any apparent way, it doesn't appear to be revered as it would be in other Asian countries. One memory stands out- we were in Wat Xiengthong in Luang Prabang one day and admiring the restoration that had taken place under the stewardship of Unesco. Almost 700,000 usd was spent on restoring the Temple between 2011 and 2014. And it's glorious- a truly remarkable Wat. But as I wandered around and peered under a table, I saw dozens of artefacts just sitting haphazardly under the curtains. It looked much like my house when I have visitors, everything shoved into a cupboard and hoping no-one looks.
The evidence of the war isn't prominent but we did visit the COPE centre in Vientiane and were able to see the impact of cluster bombs and unexploded ordnance. Children are disproportionately affected by unexploded bombs and work is continuing to clear the 80 million or so left on the land.
Vientiane is the capital city and while it's not hailed as somewhere essential to visit, we enjoyed our 2 nights. As this was just an add-on and not a formal tour, we used a tuk-tuk to get around and were lucky (?) to get quite a character as our driver. He kept us simultaneously puzzled and delighted with his rendition of Laotian history. But we got to see all the sights including Buddha Park, the Victory Monument, Presidential Palace, Pha That Luang Stupa, the National Museum the night market and much more.
From there we went to Luang Prabang on the bullet train and were grateful to graduate from tuk-tuk to mini van. Luang Prabang was a delight and we were able to enjoy being close enough to the Main Street to enjoy it in all its kaleidoscopic glory while also able to escape to our nearby hotel. We did all the sights here too- the Kuang Si waterfalls, the night market and street food, the sun bears, the buffalo farms, temples and all topped off with a sunset cruise on the Mekong River. A real highlight was the 5 am Tak Bat or alms giving where the monks walk down the street and accept gifts of food, rice and other goods from the hundreds of people lining the roads. Some people think it's over touristic and it probably is, but it was also humbling to see these devoted monks who live off the kindness of others being helped in this way.
So that was Laos. As I mentioned it was an add-on so I originally hadn't intended it to be as full a tour as it turned out to be. But it's an intriguing and enticing country. Definitely warmer and more interesting than Laois, but then again there's no place like home.
