Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and farmers whose livelihoods are sustained by the Mekong and its tributaries, though it's
now in need of some updating.
FICTION AND TRAVELLERS' ACCOUNTS
Marthe Bassenne
In Laos and Siam
. The evocative account of a French expatriate wo-
man's 1909 journey up the Mekong river to Luang Prabang.
Colin Cotterill
The Coroner's Lunch
. The first of an enjoyable series of crime novels about
Doctor Siri, the reluctant chief coroner, set in Vientiane after the end of the Second Indochina
War. An often farcical thriller, Siri is an engaging narrator as he tries to expose the secrets of
a number of mysterious deaths.
LouisDelaporte
A Pictorial Journey on the Old
. Volume 3 of the Mekong Exploration Com-
mission's report is devoted to the exquisite illustrations of the artist who accompanied French
explorers Francis Garnier and Doudart de Lagrée during their 1866-68 expedition.
Francis Garnier
Travels in Cambodia and Part of Laos
. The English translation of the first
volume of the report by France's Mekong Exploration Commission, which set out from Sai-
gon to find a back-door route to China via the Mekong, details the group's travels from Cam-
bodia to Luang Prabang.
FrancisGarnier
Further Travels in Laos and in Yunnan
. Volume 2 of the Mekong Explora-
tion Commission's report focuses on the weary explorers' travels in Upper Laos and Yunnan,
with entries on a Muslim uprising in China and Garnier's explorations of alternative trade
routes.
F.J. Harmand
Laos and the Hill Tribes of Indochina
. A cultural barbarian by today's stand-
ards, the French explorer nevertheless produced a valuable report on his late nineteenth-cen-
tury journey through southern Laos, researching the region's natural history and searching
for an overland route from Champasak to Hué. The account, which records funerary and re-
ligious customs of the highland tribal minorities of the Bolaven Plateau, also focuses on his
encounters with the Phu Tai people of the Savannakhet region, and is liberally sprinkled with
amusing and insightful anecdotes.
HenriMouhot
Travels in Siam, Cambodia, and Laos
, The account of the final journey of the
legendary “discoverer of Angkor Wat”, filled with his characteristically blunt observations of
the people of Laos, from the tobacco-hungry infants to the uncouth court officials whom he
encountered on his journey to Upper Laos, which resulted in his death outside Luang Pra-
bang.
HISTORY
Jane Hamilton-Merritt
Tragic Mountains: the Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret
Wars for Laos, 1942-1992
. This impressive account of the Hmong, written by a Pultizer
