Blogs from Laos, Asia

It's landlocked, it's Asian, it's a 'land of smiles', it's a non stress-inducing nation, it's something of a well-kept secret among travel destinations.....it's Laos! The first visit to Laos back in 2012 intrigued me, as here is a nation where a gloriously unhurried pace of living really tries its utmost to make sure that you are also part of that mindset no matter how busy you think your travel schedule might be! The first port of call this time around happened to be the only familiar part of the nation, the capital city Vientiane, which has a few cultural features but, for the most part, is also part of the entire nation's laidback charm. The French colonial era might have some relation to Patuxai, one of the city's more prominent landmarks, an elaborate-looking arch, possibly best ... read more

In our last missive I decried the residual resistance to vaccine uptake in parts of the wealthy west, as well as its hesitant roll-out to their juveniles. Even more pertinently we worried about the limited availability and constrained distribution of vaccines within developing countries. Such outcomes were likely to see new, potentially more threatening, variants emerge. And sadly so it proved. Most of Africa trails far behind the rest of the world in terms of vaccination rates, whilst several countries there still have outrageously high numbers of individuals infected with (non-retrovirally controlled) HIV whose defining immunocompromising nature enables other co-infecting viruses to multiply to horrendous densities, thereby, mathematically, increasing the probability of new mutations arising. Thus, from somewhere in the soup, we saw the emergence of mega-mutated Omicron that, whilst it... read more

There’s a British phrase, oft rolled-out at times when their acquirement is in the ascendancy (think Christmas and pandemics): that a dog is for life. No such sentiment exists here, at least not rurally. Dogs are not so much owned as inherited; if they choose to live close to you then other humans may consider them yours, although the canine’s allegiance may flip at any time. Equally, if their presence becomes a hindrance there is little saccharinity involved in ridding yourself of the nuisance. Dogs are transient. Our original alpha male here at Sipasert, Chilo (my first Laos love), bit two individuals and was duly exiled. We have never seen him again. The same fate befell Pak Dam when, as a playful young pup, he nipped Ali. However, on that occasion, our impassioned campaigning did see ... read more

Several days before leaving Vang Vieng we rose to find Roger, Dave and Grandma behaving most peculiarly. The pups were lolling in the shade with heavy lids over bloodshot eyes, they had no interest in ongoing events and were, seemingly, unable/uninclined to stand. It appeared for all the world as if they were stoned. And so it materialized: someone had been preparing THC oil and someone else, unknowing of its nature, had dipped some bread into the herbal infusion and fed it to the dogs. They must have had quite some dose. Throughout the morning several of us tried to coax them to drink water, to walk it off; but all seemed happy enough to merely laze the day away, especially when Pink Floyd found its way onto the garden’s sound system. Antonio’s Spanish friend Marta, ... read more

Which country has the most festivals? With its seemingly endless number of Hindu deities, not to mention the mélange of other religions, I’d have guessed India. However, the Philippines – almost exclusively Christian (predominantly Catholic) - purportedly celebrates some 42,000 all-be-they, typically, at a local village level. And why do I ponder the like? Because Buddhist Laos itself has very many indeed. Only days after our last it was time to knock up some prayer boats. The official festival of light occurs on October 3rd, but our little wat was encouraging their launching in early September. Moo, Hoi and Pancake were a hive of activity assembled around various structural elements of our old perennial herb friend, the banana. The body of the “boat” is a three inch cross-section of what we’d consider to be the trunk, ... read more