UK in Laos

March 2014 Follow our Embassy’s team through our activities during the past month! Visit to Vientiane Province Our Embassy team made first contact with government officials in Vientiane Province and visited the Nam Ngum 1 Hydropower Plant site. Lord Puttnam’s visit Lord David Puttnam, Oscar-winning film producer and the UK Prime Ministers Trade Envoy for […]

February 2014 Look what we have been up to at the Embassy this month! Diplomatic Excellence on a visit to Laos Matthew Rycroft, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Chief Operating Officer visited Vientiane at beginning of February  and introduced both us an Lao diplomats to the concept of #DiplomaticExcellence. Record numbers at our visa service A […]

  January 2014 Look what we have been busy with at the Embassy this month! Happy New Year! The British Embassy Vientiane launched into the New Year with an ambitious agenda as an already established and settled diplomatic mission, full of plans for high-level work in 2014.  LGBT rights success! Anan Bouapha, UK in Laos […]

This article is part of a series of guest blogs contributed by Brits who have lived and worked in Laos, or who have other interesting links to Laos. Working in Cambodia as a freelance journalist and lecturer in the early 1990s, I heard about Laos, alluded to in whispers of admiration. Serene and unhurried, it was a […]

This article is part of a series of guest blogs contributed by Brits who have lived and worked in Laos, or who have other interesting links to Laos. My love affair with South East Asia began in 1971, when I was fortunate enough to be appointed to a short-term consultancy with the United Nations Economic Commission for […]

On 5 November, the British Embassy celebrates one year since its re-opening by Foreign Secretary William Hague, during his visit to Vientiane for the ASEM Summit. This ended a 27 year absence of a British diplomatic presence in Laos. Since re-opening, we have actively been working to raise the profile of the UK and its […]

This article is part of a series of guest blogs contributed by Brits who have lived and worked in Laos, or who have other interesting links to Laos. Compacting the hot sticky rice into a ball in my fingers and dipping it in chilli sauce, the smell and the adhesive feel of the rice bring the memories […]

This article is part of a series of guest blogs contributed by Brits who have lived and worked in Laos, or who have other interesting links to Laos. Answered prayers Seventeen years ago I came on holiday to Laos and fell in love, not with my then girlfriend, but with the unspoilt beauty of Luang […]

This article is part of a series of guest blogs contributed by Brits who have lived and worked in Laos, or who have other interesting links to Laos. Ock Pop Tok means ‘East meets West’ in Lao. I co-founded Ock Pop Tok 13 years ago together with Luang Prabang born Veomanee Douangdala. At the time I was […]

Laos was at the centre of unprecedented international attention for much of 2012 culminating with hosting the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) in November 2012, gathering the Heads of State and Government of ASEM’s 49 member countries in Vientiane.