2nd January saw us fall for another minor travel scam as we booked the 'special air-conditioned tourist' coach across the border from Hue in Vietnam to Savannakhet in Laos. Transpires it was a series of journeys on local buses for which the locals pay a lot less than we mugs did! And we thought we were becoming travelwise! In any event we consoled ourselves with the notion that we were supporting local enterprise and the views across the border into Laos are wonderful. Laos, (apparently misnamed by the French, as it should be 'Lao'), is a warm, sleepy backwater in SE Asia. Which belies the fact that it was the most bombed country in history! More bombs were dropped on Laos by the Americans than the whole of Europe received in the second world war. The
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