Visiting Laos: It hasn’t had one Covid death and has an uplifting ancient capital

Shopkeeper Kalina has just brewed tea and offers me a cup. I have stopped to buy water from her village store in Ban Chan, near Luang Prabang in northern Laos. It’s her home, too, built at ‘pig height’ off the ground to stop the animals wandering in, and is also reassuringly surrounded by a border … Read more