A Japanese woman and her daughter leave Daikichi kimono rental shop Wednesday, June 22, 2022, in Tokyo's Asakusa area famous for sightseeing, before attending their family friend's wedding. Japan is bracing for a return of tourists from abroad, as border controls to curb the spread of coronavirus infections are gradually loosened. Yusuke Otomo, who owns the kimono rental shop, can barely contain his excitement. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)

In this aerial view Haitian migrants queue to receive food at a shelter in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila State, Mexico, on September 23, 2021. At least 50 police vehicles carrying more than a hundred agents are blocking the border crossing at the river that separates the Mexican city of Ciudad Acuña from the United States, AFP reported. (Photo by Pedro Pardo/AFP Photo)

An aerial view of sinkholes (obruk), caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer, in Konya, Turkiye on September 17, 2024. Many sinkholes are observed in the fields of Eseli Plateau located within the borders of Resadiye Neighborhood in the north-west of Karapinar district, where sinkhole formation has increased rapidly in recent years. (Photo by Serhat Cetinkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images)

View of the visitor walkway at the Iguazu Falls, which was destroyed by the strong current of the river on the triple border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, on October 30, 2023. The Falls are flowing at over 24 million liters of water per second, according to hydrological monitoring by Companhia Paranaense de Energia (Copel). This is the second highest flow since 1997, when monitoring became automatic and was measured hourly. (Photo by Christian Rizzi/AFP Photo)

Drivers merge onto expressway lanes after passing through the Wuzhuang toll station at Chuzhou, in China's eastern Anhui province, as they make their way back home on the second-to-last day of an eight-day National Day holiday on October 7, 2025. The Wuzhuang toll station, located on the border between Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, is China's largest expressway toll station, with a total of 36 lanes. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

“Photocillin is the pseudonym of Dr Andy Teo, physician and people photographer based in the Surrey/Hampshire borders near London in the UK. My style is about showing the beauty of people and the world in which they live in a retro-utopian way”. – Andy Teo. Photo: “Walking six feet tall”. (Photo by Photocillin)

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.