I took this book out of the library after reading an obituary of the author. Dervla Murphy was quite the intrepid traveller. Her first book, which sadly wasn't stocked in my local library, is about a solo trip she took by bicycle from Ireland to Inda. The present book was written about a trip she took when she was sixty-six, again solo. In between and after she wrote other books about her travels. All of them seem to be done on a shoestring. What a woman!

When Murphy went to Laos in 1997 the Second Indochina War (more familiarly known as the Vietnam War to Americans) had been over for more than twenty years. During the war the Pathet Lao had been hiding out in the northern part of the country but after the war their Lao People's Revolutionary Party became the government. Despite their Communist beliefs, they espoused a New Economic Mechanism (NEM) in 1986 which led to partnership with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Friends of Murphy's who had lived in Laos for three years told her that the unspoiled beauty of the country would soon be destroyed by the economic reforms and foreign investments associated with the NEM. Murphy wanted to explore the country before that happened. And explore it she did, mostly under her own power (either walking/hiking or bicycling) and entirely without a guide or even an interpreter. She willingly ate whatever was available and slept wherever she could lay down her rucksack. Along the way she met the local people and got to know how to distinguish the different tribes. Occasionally, she would find herself unable to travel a road or path that she had intended but she was never deterred. One of the few times she took a bus her foot was badly injured when the bus had to stop suddenly. Throughout the rest of the trip her foot ached and pained her but she found that she could cycle without pain. So she bought a cheap, one gear, Thai-made bicycle and got around some regions that would be difficult to do with a modern bicycle due to road conditions and elevation change. One of the other dangers was the substantial risk from unexploded bombs and land mines. The American Air Force had, during the war, basically carpet bombed the whole country and much of that weaponry was lying in wait for unsuspecting farmers, children and tourists.

And Murphy doesn't just provide a travelogue of Laos. Liberally sprinkled through the book are her thoughts on politics, economics, conservation, war, and even tourism. She would have been such an interesting person to meet but I guess I'll have to make do with the books that she has left as her memorial. ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/one-foot-in-laos-by-dervla-murphy/

The late great Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy travelled around Laos in late 1997 and early 1998, and produced one of her typically empathy-filled accounts of the country and its people, along with the difficulties of getting around on a bicycle. (The title of the book refers to the fact that she injured a foot quite early in the trip, which also hampered her mobility.) It becomes gradually clear that this is a society in deep trauma after the American bombed it to smithereens in an unreported sideshow to the Vietnam War. Murphy generally enjoys and learns from her interactions with the locals; other foreigners are a different matter (to her annoyance, she finds that a fellow passenger on a ferry boat has brought along a copy of one of her earlier books).

Murphy was anti-globalisation and anti-capitalist, and deeply hostile to western interventions in the developing world. That’s not quite where I am coming from, but I really appreciate her candid and unflinching commentary on the consequences, intended or unintended, of economic transition. But I must say that I appreciate even more her description of the glorious landscapes through which she travels, cycling along uncertain roads through the middle of the Laotian mountains. The one thing that the book lacks is a proper map; when I tried to identify some of the spots where she travelled, I was astonished at the distance she covered. I foolishly thought that crossing Bosnia on bombed-out roads in 1997 in our Belfast-bought Skoda was a bit of an adventure, but really there’s no comparison. It’s a fascinating read. ( )

This promoter of shoestring tourism or tourism as it should be is now in Laos. Would you believe that for 10 long years the Americans dropped more than a million and a half tons of bombs on these quiet, charming and peace loving Buddhists. The effects of these bombs are being felt even today in the form of maimed an crippled children and adults injured by UXO.

Not to mention all the evils of modern society such as illegal logging, poaching etc. to quench the insatiable thirst of people of the so called first world. I hope that the rulers of this hidden paradise have the foresight to preserve what is left and say no wal-martization that seems to be spreading the cancer all across the globe.

This promoter of shoestring tourism or tourism as it should be is now in Laos. Would you believe that for 10 long years the Americans dropped more than a million and a half tons of bombs on these quiet, charming and peace loving Buddhists. The effects of these bombs are being felt even today in the form of maimed an crippled children and adults injured by UXO.

Not to mention all the evils of modern society such as illegal logging, poaching etc. to quench the insatiable thirst of people of the so called first world. I hope that the rulers of this hidden paradise have the foresight to preserve what is left and say no wal-martization that seems to be spreading the cancer all across the globe.

"Were I to return in a few years I would not find the same Laos", October 3, 2014

This review is from: One Foot in Laos (Hardcover)
Published in 1999, after an intrepid lone tour of Laos by the author - a charismatic 60-something lady on a bike. From the temples and colonial architecture of the capital, up into remote mountains and tiny villages where foreigners are a rarity; Ms Murphy chronicles her journey, from the amusing to the picturesque.
This is, however, a serious book, focussing at length on USA's 'Secret war' and the vast numbers of live bombs still making much land unusable; on covert American co-operation with the opium producers; and on modern day 'development' of the country by such benevolent-sounding organisations as the United Nations Development Programme, and the horrific results of attempts to forcibly westernize a traditional society. I have to say that my eyes have been greatly opened by Ms Murphy's expose of such matters.
A very informative read. ( )