Laos
The most peaceful nation I have ever been to. Endless mountain landscapes filled with lush jungles and cute villages. A huge waterfall, a small local village, and a stunning temple filled with monks are never far away from each other. It feels like Laos has never reached these Western amounts of “stress”. Some of its neighbors such as Vietnam and Thailand have big numbers of tourists every year and have mega cities like Bangkok and Hanoi. Laos was spared from all of this creating a wonderful environment for laid-back travel. However, Laos may look peaceful right now, but sadly it still suffers from a dark history during the Vietnam War… The country is filled with UXOs (unexploded ordnance) that were dropped by the Americans to block the route between North and South Vietnam. Thousands of unexploded bombs are still spread around the country, mainly in farm areas. This leads to a lot of farmers and kids being killed every year making it a very unsafe place to live.
Read more about the UXO problem here: https://www.uxolao.org/en/
