One Foot in Laos

Laos, caught in the middle of the Vietnam War, is one of the most heavily bombed countries in world history. It’s where Dervla Murphy’s ‘inner-click’ sends her in 1997, when the country had just opened its borders to the West. Her three-month trek is threatened by torn ligaments in her foot, but she makes no concessions to injury as she limps down drug-baron’s trails and careers through gorges on a bike without brakes. She discovers Laos to be rich in ritual and culture, with a precious eco-system and a wealth of subsistence farming, and a people who are both kind and gentle. Yet the persistent problems bequeathed by the country’s recent past are not yet behind them.