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The confrontation is immediate—ia hundred cluster bombs suspended from the ceiling on fishing wire. This deadly mobile of “bombies”, as the locals call them, symbolises the lethal legacy of Laos’s Vietnam War experience. It is the display that greets visitors
It is probably the greatest shower in the world. Open to the elements, it looks on to Laos’s Nam Kan National Park, northwest of Luang Prabang near the Laos-Thai border. The park sprawls away from the wooden railing to the
Pierre Gagnaire has spent the morning swimming. Never mind that the sixty-five-year-old Frenchman arrived in Da Nang, on Vietnam’s central coast, just last night, having spent the week visiting his restaurants in Tokyo and Seoul. One could forgive him for
Walk down any street in Luang Prabang, Laos, and you will be presented with any number of opportunities to interact with elephants. Some are more ethical than others. Indeed, at the Elephant Village, fifteen kilometres outside town, the motto is:
“This is a service we’re paying for,” complained the American girl as she and her bags were shoved unceremoniously into the admittedly too-full taxi that was to take us to the Hanoi coach terminal. “We’re going to give you the
A small armada of tour boats pulled up at the floating fishing village and a gaggle of foreigners alighted onto the rickety platform that serves as its makeshift town square. They proceeded to the leaking rowboats and crusty kayaks that
How did three weeks turn into eight months? It’s not as though Saigon—I’ve been calling it Ho Chi Minh City in these pages until now, but let’s give it the name and respect it deserves—is so captivating as to necessitate
When I departed Australia for Spain last year, I had my Kindle packed and ready. My reading had been planned in advance: Booker winners and Russian classics and theses on the nature of democracy—a library’s worth of books at my