Besides, none of us had been to Laos before and I knew my parents would enjoy sightseeing, immersing in local culture over staying in a beach resort.
I, too, wanted to see for myself the country I had heard so much about from my ethnic-Lao French friends in France. The Lao community there was among the largest outside of Southeast Asia. It was somewhat ironic that my first encounter with Lao people took place in Paris. And it was also there where I had my first taste of Lao food – mok pa, aromatic steamed fish wrapped in a banana leaf parcel.
I came to Laos expecting to see remnants of French colonisation, but forgot that so much time has passed. All that’s left were baguette sandwiches, pastries, colonial-era architecture, and a handful of French signages at government institutions.
BETWEEN VIENTIANE AND KUNMING
Only upon seeing the row of national flags flying alongside the red hammer-sickle flags of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party at Patuxai, did I recall that Laos was one of the last five communist countries in the world, alongside China and Vietnam.
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