For travellers seeking an exotic dining experience, Laos offers opportunities from crunchy crickets fried in chillies to savoury chicken testicle pudding. For those travellers with a less adventurous palate, meals in the countryside are often limited to fried rice and noodle soup and for vegetarians, sticking to a meat-free diet is almost impossible. In Vientiane, … read the full post

Vientiane’s nightlife may not be the most raucous or exciting in Southeast Asia but if you know where to look there are a few great little spots to be found away from the backpacker haunts that serve up Beer Lao and little else. While most of the city’s nightlife is based along the river and … read the full post

Vientiane’s music scene is still in its infancy and far less prominent than in cities like Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Yet if you find yourself weary of karaoke, a handful of local bands usually play shows on the weekends, with a few more peppered across weekdays. Local bands feature both Lao and falang musicians, mostly … read the full post

Buddha Park, like many of Vientiane’s other attractions, is more curious than spectacular. A rogue monk is said to have attempted to reconsolidate Buddhism and Hinduism into his own brand of mysticism through a rather prolific collection of sculptures depicting various deities and scenes from both religionsin the 1950s. The choice of building material, cement … read the full post

Trekking on tropical trails, riding on bumpy dirt roads, gadding about in the heat and lapping up generous quantities of Beer Lao are all popular activities in Laos that can leave at least one body part feeling very sore. If you’re passing through Vientiane, you may want to take advantage of the very affordable and … read the full post

Every year the Lao observe Buddhist Lent for a three-month period, in which they (attempt to) abstain from alcohol and meat to honour the Buddha’s months of ascetic contemplation before he reached enlightenment under the bodhi tree. The end of this period, marked by the first full moon in the 12th month of the Buddhist … read the full post

Vientiane boasts just a handful of monuments; its biggest, That Luang, was built in 1560 to commemorate moving the capital city from Luang Prabang to here. Perhaps the lack of interesting architecture is what led the Royal Lao government to create Patuxai when the US supplied cement and funds to build an airport in 1960 … read the full post

Whereas most Western art is presently an avenue for transgressing social customs, art forms in Laos are practiced in order to maintain them. As travellers may notice, passing the paintings sold on the street, certain themes in Buddhist art are repeated by almost every artist; these are the images of classical Lao paintings that students … read the full post

Noodle shops are abundant in Laos and noodle soup is a favourite meal at any time of day. There is, unfortunately, a long spectrum when it comes to quality of soups. Some places serve aromatic and refreshing bowls of deliciousness; others warm MSG-infused water with meat that looks as if a one-armed blind pirate hacked … read the full post

Laos is one of the most laidback destinations in Southeast Asia, if not the world. Many people travel to this land of rivers, mountains and paddy fields to disconnect, wind back the clock and spend their days lazing by the riverside with a drink in hand and smiles on their faces. As recently as a … read the full post