What makes Phong Savan different from innumerable other thatch-roofed Laotian villages is the comfortable Inn of the Snow Leopard, built in the form of a hunting lodge. Last month the boys were ...

It was late in the morning, and the Communist antiaircraft crews guarding the bridge on Route 7, ten miles from the Laotian village of Ban Ban, were probably not hankering for extra work.

Villages clustered along the river regularly host backpackers drawn to the country’s exquisite French colonial architecture and stunning palaces and temples, but, the rugged terrain keeps Laos ...