One Foot in Laos - Hardcover

Murphy, Dervla

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585671436 ISBN 13: 9781585671434

Publisher: Overlook Pr, 2001

Synopsis

A renowned travel writer describes her journey into the small Southeast Asia country of Laos, a land of gentle and welcoming people who are still dealing with the repercussions of the Vietnam War and are confronted once again with the pressures and encroachment of the modern world.

About this title

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Overlook Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1585671436
• ISBN 13: 9781585671434
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 284