Day 139. Luang Prabang, Laos. Come the revolution.

Visited the Royal Palace this morning. Not that we're remotely interested in traipsing round stuffy old residencies of the rich and famous you understand. No, we had a more sinister agenda; to find out for ourselves the official party line on the disappearance of the Royal family in late 1970's.

On hearing we were planning to visit Laos, a fellow traveller had given us her copy of Christopher Kremmer's 'Bamboo Palace' a couple of months back. A fascinating and disturbing account of what happened to the thousands of people unlucky (or foolish) enough to oppose the revolution.

The King, being a wily sort of a bloke, tried to keep his head down while the VietCong backed bully boys went about their grisly business. But deep down, he must have known it'd only be a matter of time before the blue bloods were rounded up and dispatched to one of the newly built internment camps to be 're-educated'.

Shocking stuff. And to this day, the lack of freedom of speech in Laos means no-one is prepared to discuss what happened to the countless souls who disappeared.

The Palace remains pretty much how they left it in 1976; big fancy rooms stuffed with expensive trinkets and baubles. Just like any other Royal gaff in the world I imagine. Significantly though, the only people walking the corridors these days are officious looking guides who are well trained at blocking mischievous questions from tourists.

"So where are the family now?"

"Up north"

"They don't choose to live here any longer?"

"Abdicated. Moved north"

And so on.

Of course, no-one's daft enough to ask whether the family, or indeed the thousands of other political prisoners were killed. That would be a question too far, but it was still kind of interesting to hear such bare-faced lying first hand.

It's a tricky one. We really like Laos, it's a gorgeous place full of gentle, kind-hearted people. But as long as it's being run by such a dodgy set of corrupt muppets (who laughingly call themselves democratic), then it's a country we'll struggle to love.

Great beer mind.