Travelling to Phu Bia, northern Laos  -  Following an early morning flight out of Bangkok, the group landed at Vientiane in Laos and took chauffeured 4WD vehicles (top right) north, on a paved highway through towns and rural countryside before turning off onto gravel roads, across Nam Ngum Lake by ferry (background image) and up into the mountains (top left) for a three and a half hour drive to Phu Bia Mining's Ban Houayxai gold project, arriving by lunch time.  Photographs by Mike Porter