hwastrategies.blogg.se - One Foot in Laos by Dervla Murphy

Stalking the Elephant Kings: In Search of Laos by Christopher Kremmer.Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America’s Clandestine War in Laos by Roger Warner.

One Foot in Laos by Dervla Murphy (Not one of the best books about Laos, really).

I Little Slave: A Prison Memoir from Communist Laos by Bounsang Khamkeo.

Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos by Natacha Du Pont De Bie.

Love Began in Laos: The Story of an Extraordinary Life by Penelope Khounta.

Another Quiet American: Stories of life In Laos by Brett Dakin.

Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Dervla leaves Laos in a melancholy mood, but grateful for having been privileged to glimpse a unique culture on the verge of extinction. The persisting problems bequeathed by its recent past are tragic and other problems loom, threatening its immediate future. Kindly, gentle and welcoming, Dervla finds their laid-back nature infectious. Not so in Laos, where the people more than compensate for everything that goes wrong. Frustrated trekking plans, torn ligaments and a defective bicycle might, in any other country, induce gloom and despondency.

However, the machine proves useful as a bag carrier while Dervla goes on her one-footed way. After injuring her foot she buys a Thai-manufactured bicycle, which purchase spawns new complications and a few hazards in the mountainous provinces of Xam Nuea and Xieng Khouang. Dervla's plans to trek though the high mountains, far from the country's few motor roads, soon run into complications, for which a variety of explanations are given, both comic and sinister. In 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War, a Communist government took over and tourists were excluded until 1990 - not that many had ever put Laos on their itinerary. For this country hardly ever hits the headlines, although its small population played a significant part during the Secret War (the covert operation carried out by the US, running parallel to the Vietnam War). When Dervla Murphy mentioned that Laos was to be her next destination, most people looked a little puzzled.