In diary form, she describes her various journeys by air, by bicycle and on foot into the remote and mountainous Lantang region on the border of Tibet. Having settled in a village in the Pokhara Valley to work at a Tibetan refugee camp, she makes her home in a tiny, vermin-infested room over a stall in the bazaar. With her special brand of Irish understatement, she delights in the unpredictability of her journey and in the surprises which make her travels in that unique country such a stirring experience. The spine remains undamaged.In The Waiting Land seasoned travel writer Dervla Murphy affectionately portrays the people of Nepal’s different tribes, the customs of an ancient, complex civilization and the country’s natural grandeur and beauty. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Dervla leaves Laos in a melancholy mood, but grateful for having been privileged to glimpse a unique culture on the verge of extinction. The persisting problems bequeathed by its recent past are tragic and other problems loom, threatening its immediate future.

Kindly, gentle and welcoming, Dervla finds their laid-back nature infectious. Not so in Laos, where the people more than compensate for everything that goes wrong.

Frustrated trekking plans, torn ligaments and a defective bicycle might, in any other country, induce gloom and despondency. However, the machine proves useful as a bag carrier while Dervla goes on her one-footed way. After injuring her foot she buys a Thai-manufactured bicycle, which purchase spawns new complications and a few hazards in the mountainous provinces of Xam Nuea and Xieng Khouang. Dervla's plans to trek though the high mountains, far from the country's few motor roads, soon run into complications, for which a variety of explanations are given, both comic and sinister. In 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War, a Communist government took over and tourists were excluded until 1990 - not that many had ever put Laos on their itinerary.

For this country hardly ever hits the headlines, although its small population played a significant part during the Secret War (the covert operation carried out by the US, running parallel to the Vietnam War). When Dervla Murphy mentioned that Laos was to be her next destination, most people looked a little puzzled.

One Foot in Laos by Dervla Murphy