When I started to write this story I wasn’t quite sure, what exactly it was going to be about. I just knew it wanted to be told. Would it be: “Lao country-boy from war-ridden village turns into successful coffee baron and tour guide?”
Or: “Unsuspecting German tourists coming cheek by jowl with Southern Lao countryside – dust, coffee, bombs and all!”
Or: “How the CIA transformed into a powerful paramilitary force through its “Secret War” in Laos.”
As often happens, the story somehow shaped itself. Into a tale about one man who has been setting off fervently to build his own future, but to also take his family and employees with him on his mission to share the beauty of this land. And it’s about a man and his country who could be seen as victims of an unjust war, but who doesn’t hesitate to tell stories about atrocities in the same minute he is raving about the prosperities.
Because… well, all this is life. And it so seems that to change a narrative it really only needs one courageous human.
It’s been a 3-day very much off-the-beaten-track “Jeep Adventure with Coffee and Bombs”:
https://othershoes.info/blog/2019/03/25/lao-jeep-adventure-with-coffee-and-bombs/
