An Affectionate Glimpse of the Real Thailand
Discovering Issan Issan is in North Eastern Thailand and comprises Thailand.s largest and poorest Region. Issan,s 22 million inhabitants are predominately descended from Grandparents who were not Thai but Lao.In the 18th and 19th Centuries more powerful Thailand (Siam)fought numerous wars with Lao during which the now Lao Capital Vientiane was so completely destroyed that some thirty Years later all a French explorer could find were some ruins in the jungle. The most significant legacy of Anouvong's (The then Lao King) Lao Rebellion was the impact of the forced population transfers throughout the region. As a consequence of the warfare and population transfers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there are now over 19 million ethnic Lao living in the Issan region of Thailand , while only 6 million live in the independent country of Laos . During the French colonial period, Vientiane was rebuilt as the Laotian capital in...