In the land of a million elephants, the gentle giant is an iconic but endangered species. According to popular belief, in the cycle of reincarnations, the elephant constitutes the next stage below that of a human - maybe that's why the he had his own baci ceremony at the elephant festival in Pak Lay - for the baci ceremony is fundamental to Lao thinking; a ceremony to harmonise the individual, society, the supernatural and the universe. Lao believe everyone has thirty-two guardian spirits, known as khwdn, each of which protects a specific organ or faculty. Sometimes, these spirits become restless and wonder away from their owner. They can be tempted away by strong emotion, by another being, an attractive place, or can be captured by a bad spirit. Absence, it is believed, can cause danger, disease ... read more

The Trials of Boat Travel. In some ways we're too late for boat travel on the Mekong. As soon as a road is built, the boat stops running. The 'road' may be a dirt track, ridged, riddled with pot holes, a bumpy, dusty hell, but it's better than the boat. At least the locals think so. This is progress. In some ways we're too early for boat travel on the Mekong. Budding enterpreneurs have not yet realised that some tourists would like to travel this way. The few possibilities that exist indeed cater to travellers, but boats are few and far between. It's such a shame because there is something very special about travelling by boat. Indeed, it requires the luxury of time. But surrender yourself to the slowing of pace and life becomes a series ... read more

Aixiang, a man with a broad smile and a three pack a day habit, has spent all of his fifty years living next to the Mekong. He knows the 20 mile stretch between Ganlanba and Jinghong like the back of his hand, but of the other 2,800 miles he hasn't much idea. He constantly referred to the 'old days' - meaning the 70's, when he was a teenager and during the course of the day he spent with us he told us how 'his' river had changed. When Aixiang was a lad, the river offered it's bounty up to surrounding villagers. They fished, they collected river moss, and they panned for gold. We came across ladies fashioning the moss into paper-thin pancakes - green lace tracery spread onto circular orange boards - before being slipped off ... read more

It was the cakes that did it. There were so many of them. They tempted me. Lured me in. I was lost. I resolved to try as many as I could during the time that I was in Dali. And so my visits to The Bakery No. 88 began. Chatting to Karine, the German owner, I discovered that in a past life she'd been a chemical engineer. But she told me - "I always baked. My mother made wonderful cakes, and when I was fourteen I made my first cake, telling her I could do better than she could". A wonderful thing, the confidence of youth. She made cakes for friends and now in her retirement has used this passion to help young Chinese women. "I wanted to show them that if they worked hard and ... read more

Who'd have thought that in a backwater like Baisha we'd meet a world-famous personality? This small village, nestling amongst fields and mountains, seems untouched by the rest of the world, but it's the home of 'the Taoist physician in the Jade Dragon Mountains' more simply known as Dr. Ho. Bruce Chatwin set the ball rolling when he referred to Dr. Ho thus, in his "New York Times" article and from then on Dr. Ho's fame grew. Michael Palin interviewed him for his BBC "Himalya" programme and John Cleese, his Monty Python colleague, is said to have given the following verdict on his meeting with the revered doctor: 'interesting bloke, crap tea'. So who is Dr. Ho and just why is he so famous? Dr. Ho's clinic wasn't hard to find. Giant pasteboards full of press clippings ... read more