Laos:

1. officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic

2. officially a communist state (although, beginning in 1986, the government has emarked on a process of decentralization, often encouraging free enterprise)

3. total population of about 6 million

4. currency: Kip (exchange rate: 10,700 Kip to the US dollar (10,700!!)

5. infrastructure: no railroad, rudimentary roads, limited telecommunications systems, spotty electricity

6. subsistence agriculture accounts for 80% of employment

7. totally mismanaged and screwed over as a French colony between 1885 and 1954

8. bombed more heavily than any other country on earth in the 1960s (America's misdirected attempt to eliminate the Ho Chi Minh Trail)

9. one the largest global exporters of opium

10. "still fighting a ground war that ended decades ago for its primary combatants" says LET'S GO SOUTHEAST ASIA. By this, it's meant that landmines continue to pose a real threat for the Lao people, especially along the former Ho Chi Minh Trail.