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French textile designer Anou Thammavong left his birthplace of Laos when he was only a child. When he returned there six years ago, he was hoping to find his roots. 

With the opening of Route 9 through Laos, a road trip to Vietnam is a breeze - well almost. 

The unmarked path twists off a dirt road and into the forest, and within a few seconds there is the surreal sight of pale white bodies swathed in colorful sarongs, milling around a wooden house on stilts. Up the stairs, a woman named Noi greets guests, sends them to a ramshackle changing room and then into a windowless cell where three benches are barely visible through the dense steam infused with eucalyptus, citrus, rosemary, lemongrass, basil and mint. She offers weak tea to sweat-drenched survivors, who are encouraged to take a fresh sarong and lie down on one of six beds for a slow but powerful massage in the open air.

Lao women seeking to escape poverty and poor education are increasingly ending up as sex workers in Laos and neighboring Thailand, mainly to support their families and themselves, experts say.

Thursday night in Vang Vieng in northern Laos, and the guesthouses along the Nam Song have gone dark. The thin clouds no longer glow with that fluorescent warmth of a small town below. 

Some say Tony Poe was the model for the Col Kurtz character of the film 'Apocalypse Now'. He inspired fear and disgust.