Stalking the Elephant Kings

Twenty years after the Indo-China wars, Christopher Kremmer started his journey through Laos in the tranquillity of Luang Prabang, once the royal capital. Setting off in search of the lost royal family, a 600 year old dynasty consumed by the violent troubles of the 1960s and 70s, the author reveals a small, land-locked corner of Asia struggling to come to terms with the legacies of the American war and Asian communism. This is travel with a mission and it takes the author deep into Laos - to the bomb craters and enigmatic stone containers of the Plain of Jars, the brooding caves and limestone peaks of Houaphan near the Lao border with Vietnam, and the southern provinces bordering Cambodia. This text tells the story of an Asian revolution and its tragic consequences. Based on extensive travel inside Laos and exhaustive research abroad, the book reveals details of the fate of one of Asia's oldest monarchies, and looks at how politics can affect a country's culture.