Freezing again in the night sleeper carriages. I had in all the clothes I wore on the journey from Ophir.
Photos
In the morning a stop and off for emigration from Thailand while the Thai train engine was swapped for a Laotian one
Getting through immigration at Vientiane was very easy. I changed my leftover 600 baht (about $30) for 406,500 kip (I know – so much money) and off to the hotel for brekkie and an early check in. I really the laidback atmosphere in Vientiane, with 1 million people is like a small town compared to the others we have been to. The hotel, too, is small and intimate
I decided on an afternoon off rather than sightseeing and did some washing . Beer Lao o’clock and then off for and an interesting dinner with bth nFrench (mushroom soup) and Lao dishes
History and Politics
Our local guide Was refers to Laos as a communist country but it feels pretty laidback. The Lao people had their fair share colonisation- from Siam and then the French and war in the 1960s and 70s -liberation from the French colonisers and then as allies of the Vietnamese against American imperialism (Was calls this the liberation war).
While it has an interesting pre-history, Laos per se exists from the thirteenth-century. The Lao kingdom of Lan Xang was unified kingdom from 1357 to 1707, when it became a subordinate state to Siam. It then came under French rule in 1893.
Laos was not occupied by the Japanese and had a brief stint as an independent state during WWII, Afterwards a civil war broke out between the Royal Lao Government (RLG) and the Pathet Lao (Lao Communist Party) and then there was a brief restoration of French colonial rule. During the First Indochina War (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos against the French) Laos experienced its own distinct struggles that reflected local conditions while being fundamentally shaped by regional Vietnam offensives of 1953–54. While independence came after the Franco-Lao Treaty in 1953, the Viet Minh established training camps for Lao revolutionaries, provided military support, and helped organize political infrastructure that would eventually become the Lao Communist Party. Laos became a crucial logistical corridor for Viet Ming supplies defining its political destiny and establishing the basic political and military dynamics that would characterize the Lao conflict for the next two decades: Vietnamese support for revolutionary forces, royal government dependence on external patrons, and the transformation of Lao territory into a battlefield for larger regional conflicts.
In 1962,a coalition government between RLG and the Pathet Lao was formed under the leadership of Prince Souvanna Phouma. The coalition continued to govern while communists and non-communists vied for control of the outlying provinces of the country.
Though officially neutral, Laos was a major proxy battleground during the Vietnam War. North Vietnam used its jungles for the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and the U.S. conducted a massive covert bombing campaign, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history.
After the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, the Pathet Lao established the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, ending the monarchy. After decades of post-war isolation, Laos began limited economic reforms and opened up to foreign investment and Laos today is one of the world’s few openly communist states, relying heavily on agriculture, foreign aid, and ambitious hydropower projects along the Mekong River to boost its economy. The system, overall, is sound and there is no real inner opposition to speak of and the improving economy has solidified the legitimacy of the state party. The integration into the regional and global systems and successful ASEAN Presidencies in 2004 and 2016 strengthened the international legitimacy of the system.
There are however, political issues -of human rights, press freedom and suppression of difference which have the potential to affect the future of the country.
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