Amazing Train Journeys

Laos

Laos, a long brand new railway line has recently been launched, in a country that had not really known the train for decades. Philippe Gougler travels by train, from north to south via Luang Prabang, known for its dozens of Buddhist temples. He will have the chance to be invited to one of them to spend a day with the monks. Further east, near the Vietnamese border, another facet of the country's history opens up to him, a darker one. Laos is the country that has been the most bombed in the world. During the Vietnam War, between 1964 and 1973, the United States dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs. Nearly 50 years later, every day, men and women are still clearing mines.