The most common question I get asked is why Laos, and secondly, for those brave enough to admit it, “Oh, and where exactly is that?” Yes, you know, in that big bump at the bottom, down a bit, left a bit—yeah, there, a small place, landlocked.”

The truth is, Asia has never disappointed me. I have never been to Laos before, but people say that it is still the ‘real’ Asia, whatever that means. My image is of lush, forested mountains, paddy fields, Buddhist temples, and calm, spiritual people, but I am sure the reality will be a hell of a lot more complicated than that.

In our globally connected world, I read the other day of a man with Lao ancestry extradited to Laos by the orange man in the White House to a country he had never visited before. A hard-working, law-abiding green card holder, leaving his wife and three teenage children, was valiantly trying to make his way in a world where he couldn’t speak the language and was unlikely to see his family anytime soon. Brave. So brave. Nowhere remains untouched. Yes, I am sure life there is more complicated than my paddy field image conjures.

Oh, and another reason to go is that I always gravitate toward nice, steamy-hot countries. I write this from Turkey, 16 degrees, yet sitting in a double layer of sweaters, with the heating on.

I hope you can join me on this daily journey. Or at minimum, be my brother Pete, who binge reads on my return, the hour before we speak.

I know I need to entertain with joyful stories in a world with so few, but I also realise I won’t always succeed. This is just who I am. Perhaps I take too many things too seriously. Rest assured, though, that you get the real me, not an AI version 🙂