Twenty years after the Indochina wars, Christopher Kremmer visits Laos-at the crossroads of change in southeast Asia. He begins his journey in the tranquility of Luang Prabang, once the royal capital. With its ancient culture and stately airs, the town-like Laos itself-is a place of secrets, mysteries and nagging questions.
Setting off in search of the lost royal family, a 600-year-old dynasty consumed by the violent troubles of the 1960s and 1970s, Kremmer reveals a small land-locked corner of Asia struggling to deal with the legacies of the US war and Asian communism. Bamboo Palace begins as a travelogue, turns into a mystery and ultimately redefines a nation's history as Kremmer journeys through Laos to uncover one of Indochina's darkest secrets.