Round-the-World Trip 2024

With a population of 7.6 million, Laos is a former French trading post.  It became a French protectorate at the end of the 19th century, when its capital was renamed to Vientiane (population 1 million) and was rebuilt to become one of the classic Indochinese cities along with Pnom Penh in Cambodia and Saigon in Vietnam. Laos is a landlocked country and shares a border with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and China. Vientiane itself is separated from Thailand only by the Mekong River, which serves as the border point.  Trying to summarize the country’s history is no easy task. We visited a military museum to try to figure it out, but came out quite confused, largely due to an incoherent presentation on the museum’s part.  But in short, it was colonized by the French from the late 19th century until they were booted out in 1953. This time infused Laos with a European cultural element, which intensified throughout the country’s embroilment in World War II and the Indoc...