Quote:
Originally Posted by HOZ
Hmmmm....
All my friend and his wife needed was a camera the 4 times they went.
They certainly needed to be aware of unexploded ordanance left over from the Vietnam war.
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I am quite certain they did not go where i have gone then. (Few tourists do as you have to be able and willing to cover rough terrain with large potential (mines) for disaster, although a suprising number do go... but regardless - as a total of the whole not that many. I have been 3 times, although only into the far backcountry once - but it is impressive that they have been 4 times as few have the opportunity to go more than once.)
There are plenty of places where you are 100% safe (the big cities, for tourists mostly Luang Prabang or the Capital Viang Chang), others where you are so-so like the highway from Luang Prabang via Vang Viang to Viang Chang and then places where there is ongoing potential for violence/danger which is constituted by large swaths of interior hill tribe regions. Of course like most places 99/100 it is just a bunch of old guys sitting on automatic weapons, but there have been flair-ups, kidnappings, and killings in the recent past.
Laos is one of my favorite places on earth though.... maybe THE favorite... not coincidently they also have the best beer i have ever tasted - BeerLao (Dark).
Claeren.