War and peace

Laos is a relaxed place, very relaxed. Not to mention unbelievably friendly (you nearly get a pain in your arse saying hello the whole day long). It is therefore all the more difficult to believe that the Laotians are the most bombed people in the entire history of warfare. During the Vietnam war (another aside: In Asia what we call the Vietnam war is called the American war) the US dropped more explosives on Laos than it dropped on all its Second World War targets put together: half a tonne of explosives for every man, woman and child in Laos, the equivalent of 10 tonnes for every square kilometre. This all despite the fact the Laos was officially neutral during the war!

As an ultimate fingers up to the US, the Lao people have a nifty way of using bomb casings to make flower bed containers, fence poles etc. In Muang Ngoi they were even used as steps up a small hill...

Bitterness is not a Lao word.