I ran away from home in January. This isn’t as cowardly as it sounds, although I did ditch my children, husband, alarm clock, math homework, and the cold. There was a reason for it. My mother grew up in Laos and I had the chance to discover her country through her eyes. This allowed me to visit as a tourist, but with a local slant. The flavours and sounds of Laos were woven into our lives early on and much of what I saw and heard on this trip was familiar. While it helped to have someone …