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Laos is a great country to visit. As you might know, I’m a big fan of Laos, as it’s still cheap, unspoilt, great scenery, with friendly people, delicious food, tasty beer and a relaxing and free atmosphere.
Sort of Thailand 20 years ago, as some things are pretty similar and most Lao people can speak Thai and even have Thai ancestors or relatives. You can even pay with the Thai Baht almost everywhere.
Seems like recently some Lao Ex-Military were copying its bigger neighbour brother a little bit too much. Just saw on CNN that some Ex-Military and Generals of Laos in the US, who fought together with the CIA against the Lao Guerrilla forces in the early 1970’s were planning a Coup d’Etat in Laos.
US Officials said they detained Gen Vang Pao, their leader and Thai-Sonthi-Wannabe and 8 others in California. The goal was to overthrow the current government and jail or kill thousands of Lao citizens.
The BBC reported just a few hours ago:
The accused allegedly conspired to buy hundreds of machine guns, rockets and explosives from US federal agents who were working undercover as arms dealers.
They are said to have sought to spend millions of dollars on weapons to carry out attacks.
Prosecutors said the coup leaders planned to blow up government buildings and kill “thousands of people”.
The “Hmong insurgency planned to use AK-47 automatic rifles, Stinger missiles, LAW rockets, anti-tank rockets and other arms and munitions to topple (the) Lao government and reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble,” a public prosecutor in California said in a statement.
I can only agree with Laos’ foreign minister that the prevention of the Coup and the detention of the Coup Planners is ‘great news’ for all Lao people and friends of Laos. They truly don’t need the chaos and uncertainty of another Coup. The country is poor but developing very fast, so a Coup would have thrown them back many years. It would be a disaster for tourism as well.
If you haven’t been to Laos and wonder how Thailand was when still young and innocent, you should plan a trip to Laos now! 
It looks they might need our support more than ever.
More Laos pictures on Flickr – just click here.
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For reference – here are some of the posts regarding the Coup in Thailand in chronological order:
20/09/2006 Thai Coup – Non-Event in Phuket?
20/09/2006 Update Thai Coup: 1 Military Vessel, but so far calm in Phuket…
24/09/2006 Does Thailand Have A Democratic Future?
30/09/2006 Thailand: Coup’s Dangers Have Been Downplayed
07/10/2006 Thai View Of Coup Changes?
12/11/2006 ‘Friendly’ coup in Thailand turned sour? ‘Egg on the face’ for coup backers…
22/03/2007 Thailand 6 months after Coup – Little to show
05/04/2007 No plan after Coup? Visit Fortune Teller and you are set!
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June 6th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I am going in a couple of weeks – and looking forward to it.
June 7th, 2007 at 1:33 am
You like the cheap hookers? I don’t think you even understand what’s REALLY going on there and why a 77 year old man would want to overthrow such a regime. Google it, read it, understand it, then give your opinion.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Cheap hookers? I don’t read that anywhere in the post above. But why don’t you enlight us on what you REALLY want to say? Everyone can have his/her own opinion about regimes, politics and what’s going on in this world. Janedoe, I’m definitely open for discussion about the regime in Laos, but can’t see any substance in your comment yet; except that you seem to prefer expensive hookers to cheap ones.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Political chaos wouldn’t do any good even for a progressive country. It will surely drag its economy down
June 8th, 2007 at 4:59 am
[…] Creepy news. When there, I met a young Lao guy who was about to fly out to LA. He was very wealthy. I now wonder. […]
June 8th, 2007 at 5:02 am
With the recent news of oil in Cambodia, I fear for this region. It seems more volatile than before.
When I was in Laos last year, I met a young Lao who was about to fly out to LA. I remember how shockingly wealthy he was. I now wonder.
July 9th, 2007 at 1:34 am
Well I would be scared going to Laos because of the Malaria and other dificulties. Btu I was in Vietnam and it was beautiful.
July 14th, 2007 at 6:22 am
I don’t know if you read the SF Chronicle, but Pao was released from jail yesterday on bail guaranteed by mortgages on 4 houses, one he owns and 3 others I presume were put on the line by other Lao Americans.
July 15th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
This was my greatest fear after the Thai coup – that it would be seen as the “done thing” in the area and give a carte blanche to other SE Asian countries. Even though Burma have scorn poured on them for their anti-democratic leadership (rightly so), Thailand got away with their “bloodless coup” scot-free because Thaksin was such a “nasty man” and had a face way too big for his features. It gave a terrible signal to the military leaderships of Laos and Cambodia so I’m so glad Vang Pao was caught.
July 15th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
PS. I notice you’ve been
stealingborrowing the BBC’s maps – good work :DAugust 29th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Jack…
you have a very nice blog and very informative article…
February 12th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Want to know more about why this man is doing this? Maybe the US Government should take some blame for this as well for rescinding on promises made for the help of the Hmong people in the Vietnam War. I would not want to be in Vang Pao’s shoes right now. As a leader the Hmong people look to them to have the USA make good on their promise to take family and friends whom are still over there in Loas away to a safe place. But due to politics his hand a pretty much tied since he can’t very well just do what he tried to do and go take some civilians out of the country from Laos.
Just look up some stories on youtube and on google. Her’s a link you may want to look at. Tell me if you want to still want to support the Laotian government after this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJHerGolvR0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8YFiEXxi7M