Episode 3 The Mekong River with Sue Perkins

Ahh, I'm not very good at steering.

OK, OK.

SHE LAUGHS

It's hard work.

'This is the Mekong, the mother of water.

'The greatest river in Southeast Asia.'

These are the best noodles ever.

'It brings life to millions

'from the paddy fields of Vietnam

'to the mountains of the Tibetan plateau.'

Ooh, that's cold!

'I'm travelling nearly 3,000 miles upstream to its source,

'exploring landscapes and lives

'on the point of profound change.'

-One.

-One.

-Two.

-Two.

-Three.

-Three.

THEY LAUGH

'I've now reached Laos,

'one of the poorest and least developed

'of all the Mekong nations.'

'It's a country shaped by both Buddhism and Communism,

'and has hardly changed for centuries.

'But now Laos is on the verge of huge and irreversible change.

'Dams are being built to harness the power of the river.'

I'm a great fan of green energy

but if it's at the expense of nearly 50 million people,

you've got to wonder where the balance is.

'Money is flowing in from tourism.'

And from the flashbulbs going,

you'd think that Brangelina was in town,

but no, it's monk paparazzi.

'But foreign investment

'feels like a high stakes gamble.'

Plonked in the middle is this mausoleum of bad taste

which I'm assuming is the casino.

'Laos desperately needs to develop

'but will the price of change simply be too high?'

Wherever you go in the world,

there's always a Manchester United fan.

How do you feel about David Moyes' management?

Do you think he's done anything for the club

or are you worried that this is the end of an era?

I think we all feel the same.

'I couldn't have wished for a more beautiful morning

'to start my journey through Laos.'

I've had to travel this many miles upriver

to finally get to the Mekong of my imagination

which is hazy skies and silhouetted blue mountains

and relative silence...

She says as the only boat for 15 minutes go by.

SHE LAUGHS

And there's a saying which says that the Vietnamese plant the rice,

the Cambodians watch the rice

and then the Lao listen to the rice grow.

What I glean from that is a sort of dispassionate mellowness

to the Lao People, which I look forward to provoking.

'For landlocked Laos,

'surrounded by powerful neighbours like Thailand and China,

'the Mekong is its most important resource.

'My journey starts in the south,

'just across the Cambodian border

'in Si Phan Don, or the Four Thousand Islands.

'I've come ashore at one of the river beaches

'to meet a local character.'

Mr Boonsong?

THEY SPEAK LAOTIAN

Nice to see you. How are you?

This is so beautiful.

'He's offered to show me the best place to catch fish

'in his little corner of Mekong paradise.'

-OK, OK.

-You can sit at the back.

-Further back?

-Yeah.

-OK.

THEY LAUGH

What was the word for beautiful? Ana laoi?

-Beautiful? What is beautiful?

-Ana laoi.

-Whoo-hoo! Yeah, it's that.

It's that times a thousand.

Same, same. Yeah.

'I'm worried for two reasons.

'Firstly, because he appears to be hitting on me and secondly,

'because I think this boat is sinking.'

This is a good spot?

-OK?

-Yeah, good, thank you.

-OK.

'We've arrived at what I assume is the fishing spot.

'And now I have a third reason to be worried.

'Boonsong's got a state of the art harpoon gun.'

These are rockfish we're looking for.

Did you see? Smartarse-ness comes just before a fall.

Why am I going upwards to fish?

-Why am I climbing a mountain?

-OK?

-You're a nutter!

Ooh! Waterfall, beautiful waterfall.

-Oh, wow!

-SHE LAUGHS

You have a very excitable squeal.

-It's very beautiful.

-Yeah. Beautiful, yeah.

'It turns out we're not the only ones

'to have made the treacherous trek to this popular fishing spot.

'There are traps set up along the rapids

'and we're about to spoil the solitude

'of an old lady quietly getting on with her work.'

Can you fish anywhere on the river

or does each fisherman have a special pitch, a special spot?

'Boonsong is very aware that catching fish

'is increasingly hard work,

'but this beautiful scenery attracts backpackers

'in search of unspoilt Asia

'and for Boonsong,

'tourists offer a more attractive income than fishing.'

What do you think of backpackers?

What do you think of travellers?

And that's a way to get more money?

'Boonsong's suddenly reminded we came all of this way to catch fish.'

-He's got excited about the fish now.

-Come on.

She's shamed you. She's shamed you with her brilliance

Beautiful. I don't know why he needed a harpoon for those.

For me, that's overkill.

How many?

-It's good.

-Good for barbecue.

'Boonsong has introduced me to the Lao phrase "bo panang",

'meaning "no worries".

'Which just about sums him up.

'It's this mellow atmosphere

'which draws hoards of backpackers,

'keen to just lie back and soak it all up.

'With ever an eye for an extra buck, Boonsong runs a shack on the beach.

'Next year, he hopes to open a guesthouse, too.

'All his family lend a hand, and today I've offered my services.'

Can I just say your husband did not catch this.

If he's been telling you he's a fisherman, he's lying.

Bash.

Goodbye, bingo wings. Hello, papaya.

'I'm glad papaya salad is on the menu,

because I love it,

'but I haven't experienced Laos papaya salad before.'

OK, A bit of a tasting.

Ohh!

SHE LAUGHS

It's good.

I'm going to say that now

while I still have the power of speech. It's really good.

Yes, if she says it's hot, we're in trouble.

Fire, just fire!

I don't know where I'm going, I'm just going to go

down to the river and drink it.

I mean, literally all of it.

So, I'm just about to take part in a Baci ceremony

which, although it sounds like it,

isn't a Welsh songbird diva strop.

In fact, it's a pre-Buddhist ritual

which integrates the 32 souls or spirits of the body

and usually happens at a time of transformation.

We've got no idea what weapons grade military hardware

he's brought with him this time.

Who knows? Maybe a bazooka or a surface-to-air missile. Whatever's appropriate.

'An elder is going to perform the ceremony.'

I just want to kiss his face. He's just got a face that you want to smooch.

You have a beautiful face.

87 years.

Amazing. Amazing.

Boonsong and his family, like most Lao, are Buddhist.

And today, the ceremony is for me.

It's to wish me well on the start of my journey through Laos.

I have absolutely no idea what the words mean,

but the feeling, the warmth from this gathering is tangible.

As each person ties a string round my wrist,

they are offering me a blessing.

To work, I've been told they need to stay on for at least three days.

I don't think you can get much more blessed than that.

Properly blessed, properly blessed. Amazing.

Boonsong is a cracking guy.

He's so energetic and full of life,

and he's so wonderfully friendly and charismatic.

He's also one of the laziest entrepreneurs I've ever met,

in the sense that he's just got this amazing ability to not do anything.

He gets other people to do it,

so somebody will catch his fish and he'll buy them.

His wife will do the cooking,

he'll embed a cleaver in an onion and think he's made the dish.

But perhaps that's the key to his success, really -

powers of delegation will mean he'll make his fortune.

Maybe I'll come back here in ten years' time

and he'll have formed a chain of restaurants

that will, you know, extend throughout Asia

and he'll be doing very little work in any of them, I imagine.

Having a beer on a porch of one and roaring with laughter.

HE SINGS LAO KARAOKE

'I really hope that Boonsong's plans work out.

'He's adapting and he's welcoming in the tourist dollar.

'But what about those upstream,

'for whom fundamental and profound change is coming?'

'The Xayaburi hydroelectric dam

'is Southeast Asia's biggest

'and most controversial engineering project.

'It's the first dam across the Lower Mekong

'and will completely block the flow of the river.

'The countries downstream of Laos

'are deeply concerned about its impact.

'It's taken us months to negotiate access to film here

'so this is a pretty big day.

'I've certainly never been

'so excited to meet a couple of thousand builders.'

Throughout the entirety of my trip up the Mekong

the prospect of damming has always loomed large

but the dams felt like a Keyser Soze figure -

dark and mysterious and always out of sight.

And here in Laos, I will actually get to visit one.

It doesn't really matter whether you think

that it will bring renewable energy to an area

that is one of the least provided in the entire world

or whether you think, quite frankly,

it's an ecological disaster waiting to happen.

Either way, the dam is coming

and it will change this entire land for ever.

'Laos is a communist state,

'and information about the dam is very tightly controlled.

'Off camera, there's a whole convoy of information officers

'and media minders making sure that I'm strictly on message.

'Almost everybody I've met on my travels up the Mekong

'have been against the damming project,

'but I'm trying to keep an open mind.'

I'm just approaching the dam now, pulled over,

and the support car went in front of us, put the nee-naws on.

It's quite exciting, I now feel I'm part of Police Camera Action!

I expect Alastair Stewart to pop up any minute now

in a very tight pair of stonewash jeans.

But it just goes to show how tightly controlled this area is.

What's really funny as well

is there's no other traffic on the road.

Literally the road is completely clear.

'It's impossible to understate the significance of this one project.

'It has the power to change the entire region.

'On my journey, I've met just some of the 50 million people

'who depend on the Mekong for their food and livelihood.'

'My liberal Western kneejerk reaction is that hydroelectric power

'means clean, green energy,

'but if I dig a little deeper, an ecological alarm bell goes off.

'I start to understand

'that dams interrupt the natural flow of the river,

'changing water levels, blocking fish migration

'and destroying fish stocks.'

Oh, that's marvellous. We're being saluted.

It's just a sort of reflex.

I have no military training.

I seem to be stuck in a sort of media sandwich

in that they're making a documentary about me

as I'm making a documentary about them.

'I think the security might have been stepped up

'as I'm on my way to meet a representative

'of the communist government,

'the rather splendidly named Mr Viraphonh Viravong,

'the Vice Minister for Energy and Mines.'

-It's nice to meet you.

-Please...Viraphonh.

Mr Viravong, nice to meet you.

Thank you for letting us come and see your dam.

-It's our pleasure to receive you here.

-Thank you.

-Come in...

-Excellent.

..and talk about the projects a little bit.

Come, we have to do the presentation.

Ah. This is great, cos I've prepared a speech.

I feel like I'm in a James Bond film.

-SHE LAUGHS

-This is very good.

'I'm desperate to clap eyes on the actual dam

'but before I'm allowed on-site,

'I have to sit through a 40-minute presentation

'on hydroelectric engineering

'including navigation lock systems,

'sand flushing

'and, of course, fish transportation.'

-Next to that is a fish lift, but we call it...

-A fish lift?

Fish lift.

-They've got their own lift?!

-Yep.

I've never heard of a fish lift.

You have the lift. It's like this.

-It is a lift...

-Yeah?

..coming down, the gate open,

and, after, the fish can come in.

Going up.

Automatically, we set the times and other things,

it would go up and release it upstream.

These are for the fish that like to migrate at the bottom of the...

like catfish and other thing.

You've got the fish escalators and fish lifts.

I can't knock you.

That's the most high-tech marine life I've ever come across.

I don't get invited to a lot of presentations

because I'm an A-grade numpty.

But I really enjoyed it and I had lots of questions,

all of which were answered and a lot of prejudices confronted.

So, I don't know at the moment whether everything I've...

You know, all my sort of naive ecological feelings

about dams are wrong

or whether they're very, very good at selling me a hard lie.

I don't know. He's a marvel, though.

'And finally, here it is.

'This construction side is massive and it's not even a quarter built.

'I've seen the effect of dams further down the river in Vietnam

'but here it is in all of its concrete glory.

'I can't help but be impressed by the scale, the size,

'the industry - there are 9,000 people working here

'around the clock.

'Thailand is paying most of the 3.8 billion costs.

'In return, they will get 95% of the electricity produced.

'But Mr Viravong is still confident

'that Laos will have longer-term benefits.'

In your presentation, you showed 11 dams that were planned.

If all of those dams were realised, what percentage of the total energy

produced will be renewable energy in Laos?

-So everything will be pretty much renewable in Laos?

-Yeah.

So you can go from the visually greenest

to the ethically greenest country in the entire world?

This also means a lot of money now for Laos potentially.

This is a huge revenue generator.

Do you think it will massively change the country?

'Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

'But of course, there's a catch.

'Thousands of people will be forced to leave their traditional villages

'as the waters inevitably rise.

'Mr Viravong offers me the chance to look around their new homes.'

-On my own, without an entourage?

-Right.

'When Mr Viravong said I could go alone,

'he actually meant I could go with a convoy of ten cars

'just to check I get to the right place.'

So this is the village of Ban Tang Long

and I'm just going to get an impartial view

on what it's really like having your community uprooted.

Thank God there are 20 government officials

and heavies to make sure he really does have an impartial view.

'It's hard to know who I'm supposed to be meeting.

'Villager one turns out to be one of the developers.'

May I sit?

-Too hot for me.

-Yeah.

'Villager two, the Laotian Johnny Vegas,

is another developer.'

So, um...

It's the villager here, you can interview him.

'Ah, finally. The real McCoy.

'But just in case he gets his words wrong,

'the company have supplied a translator.'

So, when did you and your community come to the resettled village?

Already disagreement.

Slightly filtered answer.

What was your feeling

when you knew that your village was going to be moved?

He said, "Feel happy."

Very happy.

And what are the changes from the old village to the new village?

This sounds very good.

Is there any one small thing that is bad about moving?

Would you mind showing me around the village?

Excellent. Thank you.

This dude's doing a deal. Look at him.

He's just doing a couple of quick property deals.

Is it possible to see inside a house? Is that OK?

Is this your house, or are we just walking into a stranger's house?

I mean, who's going to question this guy?

You can go anywhere he say.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, you're the dude.

I feel like I'm in a Southeast Asian version of Reservoir Dogs now.

Look!

'And this is what it's all about.

'With a flick of a switch, lives are transformed.'

Entering those homes and they are really a class above

anything I've seen all the way along the Mekong.

Don't get me wrong, they are great places for these people to live

and I wish that for them,

but I can't help thinking that, in a way,

they're just exchanging one kind of bonded labour,

in this case fishing, for our capitalist version,

which is just slumped in front of stuff.

You know, addicted to stuff, to material stuff.

I think I went into today thinking I have a feeling about which way

I would side on this debate, but very little information.

Now I can honestly say I've got an awful lot of information

but I find it very hard to plonk myself firmly

either side of the debate.

I think to frame the debate

within the sort of binary opposites of right or wrong

is a hiding to nowhere, really.

I was incredibly impressed with Mr Viravong.

I thought he was a proper statesman, you know, and he had all the patter

and I slowly became completely beguiled by him.

Everything he said I believed, utterly,

just sucked into the tractor beam of fact and moral rectitude

and by the end of it, I thought,

"Yes, we must go home, we must build dams everywhere

"because they're clean and brilliant and everyone is going to benefit."

And I maintained that completely singular perspective

for about an hour, until I went to my completely free rein trip

to the resettlement village, and then everything changed again.

And then you have to start investigating your own mindset.

I'm a product of a Western colonial education.

Why wouldn't I want people to have electricity here and why wouldn't I

want people to have nice new houses and a house like I've got?

Is it just because undeveloped Asia is so beautiful,

I'd like to have a holiday here?

How appalling, you know?

This is the thing. It challenges your preconceptions so constantly

and I'm really glad of that.

Is life's goal always about the pursuit of the cathode ray

and the fridge-freezer, or is it about a more natural connection with

landscape and a better quality of food that can be retrieved from it?

And there's somewhere...

There's a middle point that I don't know where that is

and I don't think mankind as a whole has found it, but it is the sort of

intellectual frontier that Asia is having to navigate as it develops.

'Of course, there are no easy answers

'but if I've learned anything on this river trip, it's that all

'the people of the Mekong, regardless of their nationality,

'are in this together, all linked by one vital,

'international watercourse.

'While the Xayaburi dam will surely bring economic benefits

'to Laos and beyond,

'it's also likely to harm tens of millions of others downstream.

'And this dam is just the beginning -

'there are 10 more dams planned for Laos alone, and 140 either

'commissioned or under construction for the Mekong and its tributaries.

'As I continue upstream,

'I see the people along the river bank with new eyes.

'Their ways of life have evolved over generations in tandem with

'the annual monsoon rains and the rise and fall of the water.

'I just hope it won't all be swept away

'in the great flood of progress.'

So when you think of Asia, you think weed, right?

River weed, of course, algae. I'm going to get some.

'During the dry season, when the river is low,

'the local women take to the water to collect this unusual delicacy.'

The laughter has already started.

-Sue.

-Sue.

-Sue.

Butang.

Oh, hello, straight into it. Thank you.

No worries. There will be worries when this is completely empty.

Will you show me how to get the weed? We can go?

Yet more balancing exercises.

SHE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

I see word's got out from Cambodia and Vietnam.

This is it? This is the weed. OK.

Right. There's a lot of delving now.

'It's hard to believe

'but apparently, this Kermit-coloured slime

'will get turned into a local speciality known as kaipen.'

It's a cross between farming and swimming.

Oh, that's no good?

So what is the difference between good and no good?

It looks exactly the same to me.

You've got loads. You've got a wizard's hat full.

I've got a very wet bottom. Look, look at this.

Oh, that's OK.

Ooh!

SHE LAUGHS

Ooh, that's cold! Ohh!

It's like a very strange Riverdance going on here.

I don't know where I'm being led, but I quite like it.

It's good? It's OK?

Volume-wise, I'm doing really well.

What she doesn't realise is that 90% of that is sand.

SHE LAUGHS

'The weed is processed back at the house, where it's flavoured

'with spices and hung out to dry in the sun.'

I'm going to try this bit, because there's loads of stuff on it.

A bit like Japanese seaweed. Quite salty.

I've never disciplined river weed before.

THEY LAUGH

This I could get into.

Oh, OK. Now lengthways.

You really don't want to get on the wrong side of her, do you?

-Take that.

-Yeah. Hell, yeah!

I tell you what - you can have some of that back. Hang on.

THEY LAUGH

So, do you know that they are going to build a dam near here?

The water may be higher in the Mekong near where you are.

So, if you could not make money from doing this,

you could not get the seaweed any more,

would it really affect your family?

Do you want to go back to the rice fields?

It's so tiring.

The Mekong House of Correction has completed its business for the day.

It's true what they say about Laos. It is seriously good weed.

'I could happily batter the living cack

'out of seaweed for the rest of my life.

'But as with most things Laotian,

'it's very easy to romanticise this apparently idyllic way of life.

'Laos is the poorest of the all the Mekong nations.

'For many families, sending children to school is not a priority

'and, shockingly, one out of every four are illiterate.

'But some people are trying to change this.'

Welcome to the Book Boat.

-How wonderful. Thank you.

-Welcome.

We're talking in a library. Shh!

In England, you have to be very quiet.

This library boat, run by a local NGO,

takes books to remote villages only accessed by the river and it's led,

not by your usual mousy librarians,

but this lot, who are all-singing and all-dancing.

What I like about this library is it's really noisy.

What happen? What happen? What happen?

OK, I think this might be the first library crash, actually.

Just hitting some rocks there.

Is this normal? Do they normally go into rocks?

No, no. Never happen. This is first time.

That's good to know. That is good to know.

-Can you swim?

-I can swim.

-Can you move here?

-I certainly can...

Apparently, it's my weight that's caused it.

It's a very polite way of saying, "Listen, you big porky Westerner.

"We were fine until you got on board."

'Disaster averted, after two hours more travel

'we arrive at our destination - a remote village

'inhabited by the Hmong, one of Laos' 49 ethnic minorities.'

THEY CHEER

'It's not your normal reaction for a library van.

'I feel like I'm in One Direction.

'The children borrow the books overnight and then return them

'the next morning, when the boat moves on to the next village.'

These are the Hmong tribe

and they don't even speak Lao, they are learning Lao now.

They've taken themselves off to every little hillock and crag to sit

with these books, which are as precious as gold.

And they're not interested in me

or the cameras or the circus that I've brought with me.

They're interested in just taking themselves off, opening up

the books and just immersing, and I'm so moved by it, because

that was my experience of reading and you'd want that for everybody.

That joy of forgetting the mundaneness of your own existence

for a second and suddenly being involved in

a turtle's life or an elephant's life or a princess' life.

It's amazing to be part of that for a second.

So I've just managed to secure a massive break.

I've just been told that I'll be playing the part of the tree

in the community story, which is frankly massive for me

because I've only ever played third sheep and quite a grumpy shepherd.

What kind of tree am I? What's my motivation?

'It's a sort of super squeaky Laotian Punch and Judy.

'I'm certainty giving the role of tree my all.

'I'm a tree. I'm still a tree.

'It's been humbling to spend the day with these kids,

'lit up by the simple act of reading.

'And the revenue from the dams could help elevate communities like these

'from poverty, bringing electricity, schools and health care.'

'I'm heading north on the river again

'to the ancient city of Luang Prabang,

'famous for its temples - and its tourists.'

As Lao starts to develop, it looks not only to the future

with all the high-tech, high-spec projects

such as the hydroelectric dam, but also to its past

in an effort to capture that all-elusive tourist dollar.

Nowhere is that more important than here in Luang Prabang,

which is Laos' cultural core.

I'm actually at Sean Connery's favourite hillock - Pussy Mountain.

'Phu Si Mountain - I kid you not - looks out over Luang Prabang,

'set on the confluence of the Mekong and the Nam Khan Rivers,

'surrounded by water.

'It was once the Royal City of Laos

'and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site

'famed for its temples and architecture.

'It's also the centre of Buddhism

'and is thought to be home to more monks than anywhere else in Asia.

'Laos' sleepy demeanour belies a turbulent history.

'It's been squabbled over by more powerful neighbours Burma and

'Thailand, colonised by the French, then caught up in the Vietnam War.

'But throughout all this,

'Buddhism has remained a constant, consoling presence.'

'Every morning at 6am,

'the monks and novices of Luang Prabang leave their temples to

'collect alms.

'These alms provide the monks with their food

'so I'm hoping that getting up at first light and giving out buckets

'of sticky rice will help me to win just a few karma points in life.'

Quite a crowd building, and from the flashbulbs going, you'd think that

Brangelina was in town, but no, it's monk paparazzi, how brilliant.

The good thing, of course - more people, more alms for monks.

Bad thing is, it sort of takes away from the ceremony.

It becomes this tourist experience. Just another iPhoto.

'Traditionally, every Laos man is expected to join

'a monastery for at least a short period of his life.'

So, yet another orange wash there.

Every morning - "Anyone got anything for the orange wash?"

'For poorer families, it's a way of getting an education. It also means

'that generation after generation is imbued with Buddhist principles.

'I'm joining the novices for a day

'to try and understand what that really means.'

Do you sometimes get a bit bored of it?

Do you get tired of sweeping?

-No, never bored.

-Never bored?

-Yes.

A real hint of Hogwarts about this one.

It's a very clever bit of rubbish disposal, that. Very good.

Why do you want to be a monk?

What do your family do?

-Not Luang Prabang?

-Not Luang Prabang.

So, one day, do you think you will be a teacher or doctor,

or what do you think?

Well, I think you will definitely be able

because you have very, very good English. Very good English.

'For a boy from a farming family, joining the monastery is

'one of the best ways to broaden their horizons.'

'But the subject matter of their English class wasn't quite what I was expected.

'Traffic problems in towns.'

-Road accidents?

-Yes.

Being drunk...

..is a major cause, major cause.

Never expected to be doing this vocab.

Major cause of traffic problems.

Injury.

Injury, when you hurt yourself.

Sometimes another word for injury is...

I can't believe I'm doing this.

This is the most depressing English lesson there's ever been.

Wound. Wound.

So if somebody hurts you, you can say I'm wounded or injured.

"Ah, I'm injured.

"I hope it won't leave a scar."

Ultimately...you need to know something, OK? Which is this.

England is safe. Safe. It's OK, it's nice.

If you come to England, I can guarantee, pretty much...

..no injury,

no wound, collision, crash.

I sometimes worry that you'll be frightened to go

because of the vocabulary, but it's all good.

It's almost as if I knew I was going to be doing an hour

on road traffic accidents.

It's very bizarre.

I just wonder what else is on that syllabus.

Anyway, they've got a class on dismemberment next,

so I don't want to keep them.

THEY CHANT

'The novices' day finishes with an hour of hypnotic chanting

'as the sun goes down.

'These novices are following rituals

'that have gone unchanged for centuries,

'but now these daily practices are under scrutiny from dusk to dawn

'by hoards of tourists.

'They are drawn to Luang Prabang hoping to find - or at least

'photograph - spiritual Asia.'

'Satu Oneko has been a monk in Luang Prabang for four decades

'and has seen the many changes here.

'He is now the head abbot

'and I'm wondering what he makes of this latest invasion.'

Satu, do you find there is a lot of pressure on Buddhism in Laos

from tourism?

Why do you think Buddhism has managed to survive Siamese invasion,

Burmese invasion, French Colonialism

and the beginnings of communism here?

Thank you, Satu.

And thank you for lowering my blood pressure by about 30 points

just being in your company.

You are the most mellow man I've ever met. Thank you.

With all the violent change that this country has endured, I suppose

Buddhism is the only thing that remains constant and unaltered,

and as Satu said,

it's the tree that, yes, gets buffeted by the storm

and, yes, changes its outward appearance,

but ultimately does not move and is that symbol of unity

and cultural identity for the people here.

'The monks of Luang Prabang will need all their centuries

'of silent contemplation to resist this most recent invasion.

'International visitors like myself come searching for an authentic Asia

'and a simple, spiritual way of life that is slipping away

'from our secular world.

'But in doing so, we can't help

'but corrupt that which we've come to find.'

Nothing better sums up the relationship between the tourist

and the local economy than this really sad sight.

And there is really nothing on this earth that I hate more

than a caged animal or bird.

So, you can walk along the streets

and you can buy these two beautiful trapped things for £2.50.

And then for £2.50, you get to have the amazing experience...

..and joy of releasing them back to where they came from.

There you go, there goes one. Come on.

And in paying £2.50, I've created a demand

and the only way that demand is going to be met

is by them going and catching those birds again and again.

£2.50, free them, trap the birds.

On and on and on, the cycle.

What I really want to do is say, "Here's more than £2.50,

"an awful lot more than £2.50, go and set up a bird sanctuary."

Off you pop.

'Despite the volume of tourists in Luang Prabang, there is something

'special about this place and it's had quite an effect on me.'

Throughout my trip up the Mekong,

the banks have been occasionally studded

with the odd hit of saffron, the occasional monk wandering by,

washing his robes, having a swim.

But nowhere has it been more concentrated than Luang Prabang

and in Laos in general.

And being there for a little while has helped me

begin to understand at least the feeling, I think, of Buddhism.

It seems to me that the reason it's particularly strong in that place

is because of the water, because the water works in companion

so strongly with that religion.

The idea of constant movement, of seeing something come towards you,

of accepting when it's on you,

and then letting it go as it moves past you.

'Well, I've certainly got plenty of time to meditate on this

'and pretty much everything else, as I have a two-day journey ahead,

'travelling north towards China and the end of my time in Laos.

'This stretch of river feels pure, untouched by modernity - timeless

'and beautiful.

'But I'm heading into the heart of darkness.

'Laos is surrounded on all sides by rich countries

'with powerful economies.

'The government is desperate to attract foreign investment,

'especially from its most influential neighbour, China.'

I'm just approaching now an area of land known as the Golden Triangle

which conjures up amazing romantic images.

You should always beware of thinking anything romantic about a triangle -

Bermuda Triangle, Dairylea Triangle, it's all trouble.

'And this place should come with a warning triangle -

'it's long been notorious for opium production

'but now it's a drug of a different kind

'which is being pushed - gambling.'

Having spent two days on a boat just seeing nothing but beauty,

suddenly you come across this stripped scrubland

and you can just see the heat coming off it.

Plonked in the middle is this mausoleum of bad taste,

which I'm assuming is the casino.

'This area has been rebranded

'as the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.

'It's in effect a Chinese state in Laos.

'The Laos government has tempted Chinese developers here

'with tax incentives and low tariffs.

'Essentially, they are creating a carefree playground for tourists -

'an Asian Las Vegas.

'In a Kafkaesque way, Chinese aren't allowed to gamble in China

'so come here, but Laotians aren't allowed to gamble in Laos,

'so are banned from a casino in their own country.

'So it's goodbye, Laos, hello, China.'

I actually think this is for me.

This is just...

..wrong and awkward and...

..where's the door?

I want to get out of the car and say, "Hello. I'm a delegation from the 1980s."

'When it's completed, this 20 billion project will be

'a pleasure dome fit for modern day Kubla Khans - with its own zoo,

'international airport, horse racing track and 36-hole golf course.

'With a casino that's open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,

'it's just what one of the poorest nations in the world needs.

'I don't feel two days away from Luang Prabang.

'I feel a universe away.'

Thank you. You do know I'm not JR Ewing? Thank you. Thank you.

Nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you. Good to see you.

-Good to see you, too.

-How are you?

-Not too bad, not too bad.

'Mr Abbas, the general manager, greets me like a VIP.'

-Does it matter I set the alarm off? Is that OK?

-It's OK. No worries.

'Clearly no-one's told him I'm not a oligarch.

'You would have thought he'd spotted my clothes

'don't really conform to the usual dress code.'

You've got a bit of Sistine Chapel going on.

You've got some Renaissance paintings going on.

Because of the name, so we try to create a kind of a Western feeling,

different to the level they've got in Laos, anyway.

I can absolutely promise it really is very different from anything that

they've got going on in Laos.

Now, who is this? Is this Zeus?

Yes, that's right. Very good, you guessed right.

It's not often you see Zeus and Michelangelo in the same room.

Extraordinary.

So, how big is this place?

I mean, it seems vast.

Total area is 20,000 metres square, more.

-20,000 square metres?

-More than.

-Right. Good Lord.

-Down there is the main lobby.

-Yeah?

That's the north wing and south wing

and this is our VIP rooms over here.

So how many VIP rooms do you have?

In here, we have six - three downstairs, three upstairs.

And what makes a VIP?

Is it somebody who's got a lot of money, a lot of contacts?

People who like to have more than the basic service.

-Actually, yes, high rollers, of course.

-Of course.

When you say extra services, what sort of extra services?

Well...

'After the poverty and humility of Laos,

'the extravagance of this place feels obscene.

'I struggled with the dam

'but at least Mr Viravong believes they offer

'a chance for a better future for Laos and its people.

'This whole place feels culturally and spiritually bankrupt.'

There's absolutely no doubt that landlocked, cashed-strapped Laos

needs foreign investment, but I find this particular venture dispiriting.

Mainly because I'm not sure how much it benefits the Lao people.

Apparently, 500 Lao hold jobs here out of 4,500

but, honestly, I've heard not one soul speak Lao.

We couldn't buy our dinner in kip, which is the national currency.

You could only use yuan or dollars.

It's culturally a no-man's-land.

I can't see how this place is doing any good to anybody.

'Even more worrying, this is just one of 41 special economic zones

'planned by the Laos government in remote areas of the country.

'They won't all be casinos,

'but they are all about attracting foreign investment,

'and the biggest investor is China.'

'Foreign money will inevitably change Laos

'and the contrast between the Golden Triangle

'and everything else I've experienced here is shocking.'

'The economic zones and the dams are coming to Laos

'and life on the Mekong will inevitably change.

'But the further I get from the despair from the casino,

'the more I can feel Laos' deep spirituality enveloping me again.

'There's something about this place and the resilience

'of its people that can't fail to give me some hope for the future.'

Laos is a sort of state of mind.

I can't even believe I'm saying it, but that's what it feels like to me.

It's about accepting that things change.

So whilst I would love it if groups of people were

protesting on the banks as the hydroelectric dam is created

or people being furious about the special economic zone

creating, in effect, a Chinese colony in their country,

their attitude is actually saying,

"We've had the French, we've had the Siamese, we've had the Burmese,

"we've had everybody, so this is just somebody else

"and then they'll go and there'll be another one along in a minute."

Ultimately, Laos will survive, and they've got bigger things

to worry about, like listening to the rice grow.

And that seems a very, very good philosophy

for the anxious modern world.

'Next time, I'm in China, on the last leg of my journey.'

This is the first outfit I've ever worn that my mother would actually be happy with.

'I travel through the Mekong's wildest valleys to discover

'a China I didn't even know existed.'

Look at your office! Of course you believe in God.

'And finally reach the river's spiritual source.'

If you're going to end a journey and see all this magnificence,

this surely has to be the way to end.