How far would you go to reclaim your heritage? As an American-born son of a Lao immigrant, Austin Outhavong ventured to Laos and Thailand to discover his father's heritage, and to try to make it his own. Though racially 50% Lao, Austin was culturally 100% falang, the Lao word for "foreigner." He set out on a two-year pilgrimage of cultural reclamation. He journeyed to the Land of a Million Elephants and to the Land of Smiles, teaching English at a public school in rural Thailand, studying the Thai and Lao languages, and traveling extensively. In between these pursuits, Austin found himself...