11 Incredible Things You Didn't Know About Laos

The critically endangered freshwater Siamese crocodiles live in central and southern Laos, in the wetlands river system. Adults are olive green and can reach up to two meters long and weigh 70kg. They are elusive in the wild, don’t attack humans and breed in April and May, just before Laos’ wet season. Agriculture, pesticide use, and the damming of rivers have led to habitat destruction.

Rural Lao people are by and large rice farmers, but they often supplement their diet by hunting and gathering in the rice paddies and the forests. It’s not uncommon to see a woman picking greens out of the ditch to serve with a bowl of khaopiak. Slingshots and nets are used to hunt for birds, frogs and fish. Snails are gathered from the rice stalks and everything from snakes to rats are fair game for the barbecue.

Laos has a long complex history with drugs like opium, magic mushrooms and marijuana that have been cultivated for medicinal purposes for hundreds of years. During the secret war, US soldiers began buying drugs for recreational use and until quite recently drugs were freely available for purchase in the markets. The staple noodle soup, fer, used to have marijuana included in the list of ingredients. The Lao government has since made the sale and use of drugs illegal and have encouraged opium farmers to grow crops such as coffee instead.

The majority of Lao people are Theravada Buddhists. Almost every man has, at some point, lived at a monastery and served as a novice. Buddhist lent which falls between July and October, is a common time for boys to take up the saffron robes and earn merit or good karma for themselves and their mothers. While nuns exist in Laos, they are few and far between and often take up the cloth late in life after their husbands die.

Laos has two UNESCO World Heritage sites. The town of Luang Prabang joined the cultural list in 1995 to protect the fusion of Lao and European architecture from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Wat Phou and several associated settlements in Champasak joined the list in 2001. The thousand-year-old Khmer-era temple was originally created to honor the Hindu gods but was later changed into a Buddhist temple.