Very many thanks, Shelley, for a considered comment on the safety aspect of travel in Laos endorsed by personal experience in the county.
You mention the 'Boat Landing' website. I have updated the link in the travel links on the main
www.tribaltextiles.info/links site page. Your comment gives me the excuse to make a direct post of a link to the site here:
http://www.theboatlanding.com/ I found the website absolutely fascinating and very much wetted my appetite to visit 'on the ground'.
(I say 'gives me the excuse to make a direct post' as I do not want this forum to be a direct sales site. However, I think that one of the most important contributions that the forum can make is the sharing of direct experiences to assist those wanting to dip their toes (or go up to their necks but not drown) in the water. I would encourage members to share direct experiences and even invite local parties in country to contribute to the site on an 'invited' not 'advertising' basis. We already have a couple of members who are directly involved in the travel business as a matter of livelihood and I am very keen for them to share information and also to be able to benefit in their business from that - as long as they do not get carried away and blatently advertise or I will be right in there with my moderator's delete button! I take the same view in the case of our members who deal in textiles. I am very pleased indeed if they see increased business as a bi-product of their contributions to the forum but again do not use it as a direct vehicle for advertising - which is exactly the professional way in which our current dealer members are behaving! End of lecture....!!!)
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Pamela
http://www.tribaltextiles.infoon-line tribal textiles resource