Facing the Future in Laos and the Cambodian Coast

Brava Jada and NYTimes!! It's been an amazing experience following Jada's travels this year. Her lively narratives brought to life her personal take on each destination and the beautiful photos served to enhance each description - kudos for a year well spent! I can only hope this will be a continuing feature....

Thank you for your wonderful series. My spouse and I were in Nong Khiaw in 2014, then took a bus to Sam Nua, where we were able to see the caves where the Communist Party hid during the Vietnam War as the CIA bombed the area on a daily basis. The area was beautiful and without tourists as the unexploded bombs had recently been cleared out. Such places are becoming so rare these days. China is taking the resources of both Cambodia and Laos, a truly sad circumstance. We have been reading your dispatches for ideas, especially your travel tips for long term travel. Thank you again.

Thank you for your wonderful series, I have enjoyed and learned from all of it. As to the changed brought by tourism I've witnessed them in so many places over the years and they've never been good for the local population... yes for the wealthy ones but no for most. Mykonos was paradise 40 years ago and is hell today. I accept that. But two years ago I was stunned at the level of devastation to Laos brought by the Chinese. On an extended road trip from Luang Prabang to Vientiane and up-river from Luang Prabang I saw entire swaths of riverside destroyed for the Chinese railroad... it is difficult to think of more beautiful places than those above Luang Prabang. Then down-river I saw miles and miles of forests burning in order to allow mass scale destruction of limestone mountains for the purpose of making cement. This was my fourth visit to Laos and I was stunned. Do the Laotians benefit from this plunder by China, no. They are forcibly evicted from their villages and given insufficient compensation to rebuild. The forests are destroyed, the animals killed, the soil destroyed by inevitable erosion from torrential rains. What is happening in that beautiful country is a crime against the planet. It is not exactly tourism that is the destructive force here but clearly human greed.

What has happened in Sihanoukville is truly awful, and the locals are not sad, they are very, very angry. There is only one reason Chinese build their casinos there, and it aint the weather. Be grateful your daughters are not growing up in such circumstances.

Brava, Jada, for a year of terrific reporting! Your observations, creativity, resilience, and wonderful photography have made this series compelling and inspiring. After what I hope will be a well-deserved rest, I look forward to your next adventure!

I apologize for being negative, but it sounds like Southeast Asia is being Sinicized by the wealth and power of new China. Visit if you wish before it's culture and history will be lost to modernity.

Wow, one of your best, Jada Yuan. Thank you for doing this. You must be exhausted.

I’m so thrilled for Jada and the Times upon this most successful completion of the first 52 places traveler column. As a young woman soon to graduate from college, I have so appreciated Jada’s views, her writing on what she packs, how she stays safe (and sane), and her beautiful Instagrams. I’ve loved reading about the nuances and complexities of the world, of travel, and of shared humanity. I raise my glass to you, Jada, and hope there will be a post to come about your reflections on the year - after some well deserved rest, of course.

I have been to these places, as well as many other “lost” paradises. As a young traveler in the early seventies, I was part of many group evenings sitting around drinking wine and sharing destination nuggets with the like-minded. After all, there was no other source of such information in those beknighted days. Today when I find a beautiful and unspoiled spot, I keep it to myself. BTW, Luang Prabang is still exceedingly charming and picturesque despite succumbing to mass tourism long ago. But it is a very different place than it used to be.

Thank you for such a beautiful and evocative piece and congratulations on your epic journey!! I spent Christmas in Luang Prabang 11 years ago, waking up to the sound of nonstop construction of new guesthouses. I can only imagine what it looks like now. As the town became fuller, I decided to head up the Nam Ou in search of quiet. The journey along the river took my breath away - stunning at every curve. (Some of us had to get out and walk at one point, dodging goats, when it became too shallow.) I ended up in a small village where the guesthouse rooms were already filled, with darkness falling and nowhere else to go. A kind woman took me in, plus a Thai family, and four other French and Japanese backpackers, all of us crammed together on New Year’s Eve. It was marvelous.

This has been a great series and this last article, in my view, is the perfect way to bring a year of adventure to an end. The writer shares a couple of destinations in the way I had envisioned the entire series to be: with depth, appreciation for complexity, reflection and contradiction, just as the world is out there. Well done NYT and Jada Yuan!

So sorry to hear that the travels have been completed. It was a great idea and it was superbly carried out. As noted in this article, many places are changing quickly, which would seem to warrant a further round of tours not far down the road. Maybe the next round should be themed, such as focusing on environmental concerns or migration. For now, thank you Jada and thank you NYT!

Thank youfor this series - I've throughly enjoyed the glimpse at a world I could never otherwise see.

Cambodia without visiting Angkor Wat? Pity. Lovely writing, though. I have thoroughly enjoyed this series.

China is on a 'roads and belts' program that will trash the world. What they are doing in "Snooky" (Sihanoukville) is beyond deplorable-- high rises and gambling casinos for flown-in Chinese gamblers. The locals have lost, largely because of Cambodia's self-serving president / ruler.. oh.. and his family. Laos will fall too to the Almighty Yuan.

I've been all over but I've never experienced anything quite like Luang Prabang. China will destroy it.

We just returned from a trip in which we went to Sihanoukville. This was probably the dirtiest city I have ever seen. The beaches were filthy and there is no way I would have gotten in the water. There was trash everywhere. There is no way I could recommend this as a place to visit.