Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Its population was estimated to be around 6.5 million in 2012. A third (33%) of the country's population lives below the international poverty line which means living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day.

Wigan Town center came alive with Hundreds of Revellers dressing up in fancy dress on December 26, 2018. Revellers in fancy dress braved the cold weather in Wigan, a town in Greater Manchester, England for the town's strangest holiday tradition – the Boxing Day dress up. (Photo by Dave Nelson/The Sun)

Abbas (1944 – 25 April 2018) was an Iranian photographer known for his photojournalism in Biafra, Vietnam and South Africa in the 1970s, and for his extensive essays on religions in later years. He was a member of Sipa from 1971 to 1973, a member of Gamma from 1974 to 1980, and joined Magnum Photos in 1981. Here: Kuwait, 1991. (Photo by Abbas Attar/Magnum Photos)

North Korean bodyguards run along a limousine transporting Kim Jong Un upon his arrival in Dong Dang, Vietnam, February 26, 2019. The second meeting of the US President and the North Korean leader, running from 27 to 28 February 2019, focuses on furthering steps towards achieving peace and complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Revellers in fancy dress enjoy the atmosphere during the British Fancy Dress Day on November 12, 2015 in Benidorm, Spain. The British Fancy Dress Day is one of the biggest fancy dress parties in Europe and is held the day after the Benidorm fiestas in November. The tradition started over 20 years ago when Manolo from Sinatras Club offered a free drink to anyone who dress up. Nowadays around 30,000 people, mostly British Expats living in Spain and tourists visiting the Costa Blanca resorts, attends, attend the event. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Young Korean women wearing hanbok (Korean traditional dress) walk inside Gyeongbok Palace on March 27, 2016 in Seoul, South Korea. There has been a trend in recent years for the young Koreans to wear the traditional Korean dress, Hanbok. Wearing the traditional dress, they will walk around downtown Seoul on weekends taking selfies, and share their memories with friends on social media, and also to promote their traditional dress to foreign visitors. (Photo by Jean Chung/Getty Images)

This photo taken on March 29, 2017 shows a young woman offering shots of liquer at a dance bar in Walking Street in Pattaya. Two hours east of Bangkok, Pattaya's bawdy reputation hails from the Vietnam War era when US GIs partied in their downtime. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP Photo)

A group of volunteers dressed as elves and a man dressed as the grinch take part in a Christmas celebration organised by the NGO “Unos Venezolanos” in the neighbourhood of Petare, in Caracas, Venezuela on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Gaby Oraa/Reuters)