Best time to visit in Laos

November to February, to avoid the worst of humidity

Places to visit in Laos

• The angular, golden spires of the Pha That Luang stupa in Vientiane.

• One monk’s vision of heaven and hell in the sculpture garden at Xieng Khuan.

• Irrawaddy dolphins splashing around the 4000 river islands at Si Phan Don.

• Royal relics and ancient monasteries in World Heritage-listed Luang Prabang.

• Dramatic limestone caverns at Vieng Xai and Vang Vieng.

Top things to do in Laos

• Drop into a Lao wat (Buddhist temple-monastery) for a chat with the novices.

• Drift along the Nam Song River on an old inner tube at Vang Vieng.

• Trek to tribal villages in the Nam Ha National Protected Area.

• Take a slow boat along the Mekong from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw.

• Eat a Lao luch of barbecued pork and sticky rice overlooking the Mekong River.

Discover Laos

• Read Brett Dakin’s Another Quiet American or Dervla Murphy’s One Foot in Laos for a personal take on the Lao PDR (People’s Democratic Republic).

• Listen to the undulating melodies of the khene (the traditional reed pipe of the Lao tribes).

• Watch Good Morning, Luang Prabang, this first ever privvately funded Lao movie.

• Eat laap (spicy, marinated meat), or tam maak hung (green papaya salad).

• Drink lao-lao (rice liquor), or Beer Lao, the nation’s favourite brew.

Laos Highlights

Laos has the unenviable status of being the most bombed nation in the world – there are estimated to be 270 million unexploded bombs in the country

One word for Laos Tourism

Su kwan (The calling of the soul)