Laos

The Vietnamese plant the rice, the Cambodians watch it grow, and the Laotians listen to it grow... Upon arrival in Laos, I marvel at the silence. Although I'm standing in Laos' second largest city Luang Prabang, the streets have a sleepy provincial atmosphere and traffic is exceptionally limited. Unlike the rest of Asia, it's rude to use your horn unnecessarily, so the only sound from the traffic is the ringing of bells, the sound of which is picked up by the wind and carried across the river. It's as if this lack of noise puts a damper on my own travelling - I relax. If you have the time, tranquillity is an excellent travel companion in Laos. Laos is the least developed of the three countries, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, which for decades made up French Indochina. The country has experienced a tumultuous existence in the last 50 years. From an oppressed colony, the country has lived through a dogmatic socialist era to the present day, where after almost 20 years of something akin to isolation from the outside world, there is now peace and stability with the uncertainty that capitalism brings. Laos is bordered by Thailand to the west, Burma to the north-west, China's Yunnan Province to the north, Vietnam to the east and finally Cambodia to the south.