All posts filed under: Food, Sports & Miscellaneous

Travel Gems: Phonhong, Vientiane

Published by Jason Rolan

Greetings, travelers! Around 70km north of Vientiane lies the capital of Vientiane Province, Phonhong. It’s usually not even a blip on the tourist radar. It looks much like any other highway junction town; a few petrol stations, a market, and a handful of noodle stalls. But slow down, dig a little deeper, and you will find some fascinating things. To the west and south of the city lies the expansive Phou Phanang National Protected Area. Due to high levels of encroachment and fruit and rubber plantations, it’s now just a National Protected Area in name only. It is marked with large expanses of sandstone escarpment, hiding a couple of treasures for our visit today. Laos’ Grand Canyon View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jason Rolan (@jasonrolan) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jason Rolan (@jasonrolan) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jason Rolan (@jasonrolan) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jason Rolan (@jasonrolan)   Location: Sitting just a few kilometers west of Phonhong …

Dreams and Declarations in Diaspora

Published by Bryan Thao Worra

This week we’re celebrating Independence Day in the United States; when Americans signed the Declaration of Independence and setting in motion a journey of 242 years so far to be a people, a country of its own in the world. They threw off the shackles of monarchy beginning with the now classic preamble: “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” Today, two centuries later, so many take that sentence and what follows for granted, and we rarely consider what it means to us personally, and how and why we benefited from such a bold sentiment. That people could be civil, that they would still be a part of civilized society, but …