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.

Engine driver Josef Kowatsch (top L) steers a train through the NEAT Gotthard Base Tunnel during a media visit near the town of Erstfeld August 24, 2015. Crossing the Alps, the world's longest train tunnel should become operational at the end of 2016, consisting of two parallel single track tunnels, each of a length of 57 km (35 miles). (Photo by Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais Camille Cerf (C) is congratulated by Miss Ile de France 2014 Margaux Savary (L) and Miss Auvergne 2014 Morgane Laporte after Cerf won the Miss France 2015 beauty contest on December 6, 2014 in Orleans. (Photo by Guillaume Souvant/AFP Photo)

English rapper Alesha Dixon (R) and English actress and media personality Amanda Holden arrive for Britain's got Talent Auditions at London Palladium on January 18, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by South West News Service)

Mechanic and welder Sergei Kulagin, 32, strengthens the bracing of a spider sculpture, made by Kulagin, during a demonstration on the wall of an automobile repair workshop in the town of Divnogorsk outside Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, October 15, 2014. Enthusiast Kulagin, who works as a mechanic of an automobile service station, created about 20 sculptures made of used car parts and components during his non-working hours. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A British photographer has captured life at the “edge of the world”. Timothy Allen, best known for his work on BBC's Human Planet, trekked through the freezing Siberian wilderness for 16 days as he joined part of an 800km migration of reindeer in the Yamal-Nenets region – a name that roughly translates to “edge of the world”. The stunning pictures feature the nomadic Nenets tribe, who drink blood to survive in -45°C temperatures. Timothy's epic journey, which will be revealed in an eight-minute documentary on Animal Planet USA, saw him travel across the bleak terrain of the frozen Ob River with the Nenets people in December last year. Here: An empty camp is shown beneath a colourful sky in Siberia, December 2016. (Photo by Timothy Allen/Barcroft Productions)

Goat herder Dana McGregor's goats Pismo, left, and Goatee surf at San Onofre State Beach, Calif, on July 11, 2012. McGregor started taking Pismo's mother Goatee to the beach, and it wasn't long before she was on a surfboard. When Pismo was born, McGregor put her on a board too, and she was a natural, he says. (Photo by Rod Veal/The Orange County Register via AP)