In the late 1920s the exiled Ho Chi Minh spent a year in Thailand just outside Nakhon Phanom. The Thai owners of the land have kept the house exactly as it was and have made a splendid setting with colourful gardens. Indeed, the current custodian is the granddaughter of the original owner. Nobody knows the nature of Ho’s work at the time, but he was a senior Comintern agent for SE Asia, and the location of Nakhon Phanom is close to both Laos and Vietnam. The house itself is in an isolated lane 12 kms out of town and must have been a rural retreat at that time. Nowadays, coach-loads of Vietnamese tourists visit the site, as well as the separate government museum further down the road.