one foot in laos - Hardcover

Murphy, Dervla

3.71

185 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719559693 ISBN 13: 9780719559693

Publisher: John Murray, 1999

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Dervla Murphy had planned to trek through the high mountains of Laos, far from the country's few motor roads, but she soon encountered complications. In Laos, however, the people compensated for all that went wrong. Murphy presents her glimpse of a unique culture in this account of her journey.

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Review:

‘To call Dervla Murphy a travel-writer is a serious understatement’
Donald Woods, Sunday Times

From the Back Cover:

Dervla Murphy's 'inner click' – the one that tells her it's time to abandon whatever plans she has made and follow her instinct – leads her to little-known Laos, the most heavily bombarded country in world history (during and after the Vietnam War), from which tourists were excluded until 1990.

Her attempts to trek through the high mountains, far from the motor roads, are repeatedly thwarted for various reasons, both sinister and comic, and after injuring her foot she is forced to buy a Thai manufactured bicycle. But Hare, as she names it, proves less than reliable at more than one crucial moment.

Fortunately, Dervla finds that the kindly, gentle and welcoming people of Laos more than make up for all her difficulties (although the same cannot always be said of fellow travellers) and she finds their laid-back nature marvellously infectious. However, Laos is no Shangri-La. The persisting problems bequeathed by its recent past still regularly have tragic results and its immediate future seems to have been hijacked by foreign interests. Dervla leaves Laos in a melancholy mood, but grateful to have glimpsed a unique culture on the verge of extinction.

"Dervla Murphy is an indefatigable traveller, a fine write, and an adventurous consumer of exotic potions."
TIM HEALD, 'Literary Review'

"Devotees of Dervla Murphy's rugged style of travel will not be disappointed by this latest book... she has written a first-class report on political, economic and social change in Laos."
RICHARD WEST, 'Spectator'

"a passionate, angry book that chillingly describes a beautiful but benighted country"
SUNDAY TRIBUNE

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