From there a two-hour drive took me to the border, where I exited Thai immigration and wandered over to a wooden hut on the Lao side to obtain a visa and clear immigration.
While that temple dazzles because of its detail and sheer massive scope, the Lao version is a more delicate pleasure, offering the ruins of two matched pavilions, along with other temples containing walls dating to the fifth and sixth centuries.
When Lao-tzu said a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, implicitly he was telling you to take that first step.
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Lao PDR, as a Party to the Convention, is expected to present by 30 of April 2012 a periodic report on the policies and measures taken within its territory and at the international level to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions.
"Never had citizens here been consulted in that way before, " a member of the Lao aid community said.
Similarly, after his experience with the Lao newt, Bryan Stuart discovered a species of poison snake and decided to keep its location secret.
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The Lao government has plans to build a series of dams along the Nam Ou River, which would have a profound impact on the area.
For some species, such as the Lao newt, smuggling can have a devastating effect, but most amphibians face the much greater threat of habitat destruction.
BBC: Should the location of newly discovered species be hidden?
One Western diplomat in Vientiane said they believe Mr Sombath was now caught in a power struggle between conservatives and reformers within the Lao government.
The Lao government claims that between 1964 and 1973, 260 million bombs fell on Laos making the country on a per capita basis the most heavily bombed civilian population ever.
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