Maybe it's because everything closes early, even in the capital, that just about everyone in Laos gets up before 6am. Their day might begin with a quick breakfast, at home or from a local noodle seller, before work. In Lao Loum and other Buddhist areas, the morning also sees monks collecting alms, usually from women who hand out rice and vegetables outside their homes in return for a blessing.

School-age kids will walk to a packed classroom housed in a basic building with one or two teachers. Secondary students often board during the week because there are fewer secondary schools and it can be too far to commute. Almost any family who can afford it pays for their kids to learn English, which is seen as a near-guarantee of future employment.

Given that about 75% of people live in rural communities, work is usually some form of manual labour. Depending on the season, and the person's location and gender (women and men have clearly defined tasks when it comes to farming), work might be planting or harvesting rice or other crops. Unlike neighbouring Vietnam, the Lao usually only harvest one crop of rice each year, meaning there are a couple of busy periods followed by plenty of time when life can seem very laid back.

During these quiet periods, men will fish, hunt and repair the house, while women might gather flora and fauna from the forest, weave fabrics and collect firewood. At these times there's something wonderfully social and uncorrupted about arriving in a village mid-afternoon, sitting in the front of the local 'store' and sharing a lao-ldo (whisky) or two with the locals, without feeling like you're stealing their time.

Where vices are concerned, lao-ldo is the drug of choice for most Lao, particularly in rural areas where average incomes are so low that Beerlao is beyond most budgets. Opium is the most high-profile of the other drugs traditionally used - and tolerated - in Laos, though recent crop-clearing has made it less available. In cities, yaba (methamphethamine), in particular, is becoming popular among young people.

Because incomes are rock-bottom in Laos - US$100 per month could be considered middle-class - the Lao typically socialise as families, pooling their resources to enjoy a bun wat (temple festival) or picnic at the local waterfall together. The Lao tend to live in extended families, with three or more generations sharing one house or compound, and dine together sitting on mats on the floor with rice and dishes shared by all.

Most Lao don some portion of the traditional garb during ceremonies and celebrations - the men a phaa bjang (shoulder sash), the women a similar sash, tight-fitting blouse and phaa nung (sarong). In everyday life men wear neat but unremarkable shirt-and-trousers combinations. However, it's still normal for women to wear the phaa nung or sin (sarong). Other ethnicities living in Laos - particularly Chinese and Vietnamese women - will wear the phaa nung when they visit a government office, or risk having any civic requests denied.

Laos is indeed a single party socialist republic, with the only legal political entity being the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). President Chummaly Sayasone is both the head of state and the head of the LPRP; the head of government is Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphayanh. Both were appointed to their five-year terms by the 115-member National Assembly in June 2006. The National Assembly itself was elected in April 2006 and