The Lao Rocket Festival One of the most uniquely Lao holidays is the Rocket Festival. Taking place in the hottest time of year, just before the rice planting season, locals create rockets, known as bang fai, which are launched into the sky. To get a closer look, my friend Phou invited me to his...
One portion Lao cuisine mixed with one portion tuk tuk creates a recipe for culinary adventure. You have heard that Lao food is varied and delicious – spicy hot, sometimes steaming, and eaten with basketfuls of sticky rice – but where to track down the stuff not cooked for farang...
A beautiful fragrant flower evokes a complex range of emotions. The frangipani flower is paradoxical: it is the emblem of the Lao nation but it comes from America, it is white and fragrant often offered to the pagoda but some say to be wary, it is the flower of death but also of love. Described...
How a Self-Trained Cartographer Made the Best – and Only – Maps of Southern Laos Following the trails of mapmaker Nicholas Klein brings me deep into the hills above Pakse. We wade across thin streams, swat away hairy branches, and finally creep out of the dense forest to a wide opening....
Handicrafts and Local Life Pakse provides more than just great transport links to other Southern Laos destinations. The capital city of Champasak province has its own distinct charm and offers tourists the best of both worlds: the relaxed sabai sabai way of life and the hustle and bustle of...
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