Local Friends in Laos

Mekong towns, slow boats, mountain mornings — Laos is SE Asia's most underrated country.

Laos is what travellers find when they're tired of Thailand's tourist machine and Vietnam's intensity. Smaller (7 million people total), slower, less connected. The Mekong runs the length of the country. The capital Vientiane feels like a town, not a city. Luang Prabang's UNESCO old town is the prettiest place in SE Asia — orange-robed monks at dawn, French colonial villas, riverfront bamboo bars. A Lao local friend slows you down to the country's actual pace, gets you onto the slow boat to Pak Ou caves, and orders larb the way locals season it.