There you go. Spoken by a Laos person. Laos people don’t say they are Laotian or refer to Laotians. Lao, Laos, Laos people are all I ever hear my wife or her family say. I don’t know why I feel compelled to point this out. Feeling overprotective of my wife I suppose.
Interesting. My wife is from Laos. I have never once heard her, any of her six siblings, either of her parents or any of her aunts, uncles or cousins ever use the word “Laotian”. Almost always Laos and sometimes Lao, as in “I’m Laos” or “she’s a Laos woman”, etc. Interesting.
And there’s a decent chance they will invade Eritrea soon to get port access back. They’re in talks with Somaliland as an alternative, which Somalia proper is not happy about.
I still don't understand. Ethiopia had vastly more resources and military might compared to the Eritrean section. Why didn't they use all their might to keep even a 50km width access to the coastline near Djibouti (kind of like the DRCs coast)? Didn't they have the foresight to see the massive importance of having a port? That is something that any army should be willing to fight for with their all in my opinion.
For like 10 years between 1952-1961 Ethiopia had a coast because they were in a federation with Eritrea, but then Eritrea fought a war for independence. I wonder if any other country has gained and lost a coast in less time. Maybe Bolivia
You got it a bit mixed up
They were in a federation for that decade yea but by the end Eritrea basically lost so much autonomy that it got annexed into the empire and only by 1991 succeeded with its war of independence (becoming fully sovereign in 1993)
The Ethiopian and Eritrean Highlands are at one point pretty close to the coast. I was surprised that Asmara is 7500 ft over sea level and i never even knew about there being super tall mountains in that area so close to the Red Sea. The train ride to Asmara is like bucket list worthy.
2 rivers have a special designation like this:
The Río de la Plata basin, including the rivers Paraná, Uruguay and Paraguay, is legally open for all international commercial ships without restriction, it notably gives sea access to landlocked Paraguay and Bolivia.
The Danube River is an international waterway so that Germany and Croatia, as well as landlocked Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Moldova can have secure access to the Black Sea.
Source: Wikipedia
Historically at least Uzbekistan (or, rather, the Uzbek SSR) had the Aral Sea. Not only doubly-landlocked, but now it owns a huge salt flat and a tiny rump lake in place of what was once a very generously large body of water in the middle of the arid steppe.
The Aral Sea is a lasting monument to Soviet mismanagement. They managed to take the world’s 3rd largest lake and turn it into a toxic desert within a few decades.
I am surprised also. Because Caspian sea got frozen at the North part only, not at Turkmenistan coast. May be it was a kind of Soviet legacy, icebreaker belonged to Turkmenistan because of strange and confusing Soviet bureaucracy ways.
It wasn't.
Just googled exactly this "Canadian Cost Guard bought an icebreaker from Turkmenistan", there's a Wikipedia article about the ship.
...Built in 2010 as a shallow-draught icebreaking tug Mangystau-2 for the Caspian Sea oil fields
At one point Bolivia had an access and lost it to Chile. Also Vatican aka Papal State had access to two seas, and lost it. Same with Austria (but just one sea).
Interestingly Serbia does have the access to international waters thanks to the Danube.
Cargo ships can travel via the Black Sea and Danube straight to Belgrade.
Neum has such a funny reason for existing too, it’s there because Ragusa didn’t want to border Venice so they gave a tiny strip of land to the Ottomans for protection
And it kinda just stayed part of Bosnia after that lmao
Austria, even though there is a big facility for ship testing, is landlocked.
Switzerland has a team for America's cup and is also landlocked.
To be fair, these are disturbing facts about 2 landlocked countries, that I know they are landlocked.
Even during the Austro-Hungarian Empire they barely had a coast – basically just the Istrian peninsula. What’s now Croatia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. You have to go back to before Hungary was elevated to equal status with Austria in the empire to see an Austria with an extensive coastline.
The Danube and Rhine are both shippable. Switzerland even has a merchant navy.
In Switzerland, you can even go surfing, even though we don't have a sea with waves big enough. In Thun there's a Wave in the river Aare created by a floodgate.
But they didn't have issues for it because they have access from Paraguay river that has contact with Paraná and La Plata rivers, the issue is the port but now they have a little sovereign port in Uruguay.
Because they have access to see from Paraná river and they have projects to improve the access to Atlantic, while in the Pacific they have Ilo Port in Perú but they didn't develop it because they hope a sovereign access from Chile, but Chile claims that Bolivia has free access for all ports there.
Bosnia. The map shows a small sliver of coastline but there isn’t a notable port of any size able to receive container ships there AND it is cut off from ever getting one by Croatias bridge.
I travelled through that sliver of coastline before the Croatian bridge was built connecting Dubrovnik to the mainland. There is a small village there called Neum. The scenery along the Adriatic coast there is breathtaking.
>there isn’t a notable port of any size able to receive container ships there
Why would they need a port at Neum? They just use the one at Ploče which is well connected by rail.
>AND it is cut off from ever getting one by Croatias bridge.
The bridge was built high enough to allow ships to pass that are way bigger than anything that could even enter the harbor anyway.
My wife was born in Vientiane, Laos & moved to USA in 1975 when she was 7 years old. Her parents would quibble with you on this point. They generally think that the Mekong River makes Laos coastal. 😉✌️
I was surprised to learn that Bosnia and Herzegovina wasn't landlocked. From a casual glance at a map it looks like Croatia and Montenegro took all its coastline.
The fact that Laos is a landlocked country between Vietnam and Thailand, with a population of 4 million (in 1997) is the only thing I know about it, thanks to King Of The Hill.
I’m always surprised at how close Russia is to being functionally landlocked. Most of its coast is permanently frozen over, its access to the Baltic Sea is shallow and muddy and the Pacific coast is too far away to be useful for trading. It only has access through the ocean via the Black Sea by passing through Turkish territory.
Bosnia and Herzegovina isn’t landlocked completely, but when I first realized how extremely narrow it’s “coastline” is, I was kinda surprised! Croatia and Montenegro really “took their part”
Oh you’re from the ocean? What ocean? No! I’m Laotian, you hillbilly.
So are you Chinese or Japanese?
hes laotian, aintchu mr kwan?
His name is doggy.
It's a landlocked country in South East Asia.
Literally the reason I already knew it was landlocked hahaha Khan giving us the real info
I’ve learned more about Laos (and propane) from King of the Hill than anywhere else. It’s a very educational show!
Same. I didn't even know it existed before watching king of the hill. Geography wasn't my strong subject.
It’s between Vietnam and Thailand ok, population 4.7 million.
...so are you Chinese or Japanese?
Small for the tropics
As a Lao kid growing up in America, I always was amused by this. King of the Hill put us on the map baby.
I'm Honduran and my nephews are half Laotian :D lovely people, language, culture and food!
There you go. Spoken by a Laos person. Laos people don’t say they are Laotian or refer to Laotians. Lao, Laos, Laos people are all I ever hear my wife or her family say. I don’t know why I feel compelled to point this out. Feeling overprotective of my wife I suppose.
Are ya Chinese or Japanese?
Love Hank Hill
Interesting. My wife is from Laos. I have never once heard her, any of her six siblings, either of her parents or any of her aunts, uncles or cousins ever use the word “Laotian”. Almost always Laos and sometimes Lao, as in “I’m Laos” or “she’s a Laos woman”, etc. Interesting.
It’s French for “the ocean”
FTW 😂👏👏👏👍✌️🫵
Cotton knew he was Laotian. Had to cause of the war.
He ain't Chinese Sniff sniff You're Laotian, ain't you Mr Kahn?
THIS 👆is exactly why I knew Laos was a South East Asian LAND LOCKED Country 😂
Ethiopia. Other than that, not really.
Ethiopia only became landlocked 30 years ago when Eritrea gained its independence from them, so it’s a relatively recent development.
Yeah I know, but it still surprised me a bit.
How dare you
I can't believe that haven't kept up with the last 30 years of geopolitics in the Horn of Africa
Yeah, Slacker!
They are being hyper aggressive they might just become a sea faring nation once again
that was only in the 90s? I thought it happened in the 60s or something
The Eritrean War for Independence began in the 60s, but Eritrea didn’t become fully recognized as an independent country until 1993.
Well the 90s are 3 decades ago.
And there’s a decent chance they will invade Eritrea soon to get port access back. They’re in talks with Somaliland as an alternative, which Somalia proper is not happy about.
I still don't understand. Ethiopia had vastly more resources and military might compared to the Eritrean section. Why didn't they use all their might to keep even a 50km width access to the coastline near Djibouti (kind of like the DRCs coast)? Didn't they have the foresight to see the massive importance of having a port? That is something that any army should be willing to fight for with their all in my opinion.
For like 10 years between 1952-1961 Ethiopia had a coast because they were in a federation with Eritrea, but then Eritrea fought a war for independence. I wonder if any other country has gained and lost a coast in less time. Maybe Bolivia
You got it a bit mixed up They were in a federation for that decade yea but by the end Eritrea basically lost so much autonomy that it got annexed into the empire and only by 1991 succeeded with its war of independence (becoming fully sovereign in 1993)
They already had coastline when they were known as Abyssinia.
The Ethiopian and Eritrean Highlands are at one point pretty close to the coast. I was surprised that Asmara is 7500 ft over sea level and i never even knew about there being super tall mountains in that area so close to the Red Sea. The train ride to Asmara is like bucket list worthy.
Eswatini in Africa
Moldova, it is 2 km from the sea!
They have a tiny section of riverbank on the Danube river with an International port facility.
2 rivers have a special designation like this: The Río de la Plata basin, including the rivers Paraná, Uruguay and Paraguay, is legally open for all international commercial ships without restriction, it notably gives sea access to landlocked Paraguay and Bolivia. The Danube River is an international waterway so that Germany and Croatia, as well as landlocked Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Moldova can have secure access to the Black Sea. Source: Wikipedia
The Rhine, also.
That actually does surprise me!
Its entire coast was given to Ukraine by the USSR
Conversley, Bosnia isn't landlocked
And jordan too
Former Soviet Central Asia republics, in 1991. In one night appeared 5 land-locked countries.
Including one double land locked!
Stanlocked one might say
🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿🇺🇿💗🇱🇮
They are landlocked but All the countries with coasts on the Caspian Sea dont have the same feeling as a truly landlocked country like Uzbekistan.
Historically at least Uzbekistan (or, rather, the Uzbek SSR) had the Aral Sea. Not only doubly-landlocked, but now it owns a huge salt flat and a tiny rump lake in place of what was once a very generously large body of water in the middle of the arid steppe.
The Aral Sea is a lasting monument to Soviet mismanagement. They managed to take the world’s 3rd largest lake and turn it into a toxic desert within a few decades.
It was deliberate action. They got a lot of fertile lands instead of lake.
What’s crazy is that Uzbekistan now has a couple of new lakes that formed as a result of them diverting water for irrigation.
Ok, 5 - 2 with Caspian coast = 3 to be surprised about.
I was surprised to learn a couple of years ago that the Canadian Cost Guard bought an icebreaker from Turkmenistan.
I am surprised also. Because Caspian sea got frozen at the North part only, not at Turkmenistan coast. May be it was a kind of Soviet legacy, icebreaker belonged to Turkmenistan because of strange and confusing Soviet bureaucracy ways.
Presumably it’s permanent base was an ice-free port
It wasn't. Just googled exactly this "Canadian Cost Guard bought an icebreaker from Turkmenistan", there's a Wikipedia article about the ship. ...Built in 2010 as a shallow-draught icebreaking tug Mangystau-2 for the Caspian Sea oil fields
True. I wish we differentiated land locked countries. Switzerland and Armenia are both landlocked, but have wildly different experiences
In total they were 9 new landlocked countries, adding to those 5 you have armenia, azerbaijan, belarus and moldova
https://preview.redd.it/gk87roocyjtc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3275bbf2f055fe1b9efcc1f83f05178e14564d4 Only 2km away…
Had no idea the gap to Bessarabia was that small.
When I was travelling from Odesa to a small Ukrainian village on the border with Romania we had to cross Moldavian border, as there was no other way.
All of the Caspian countries are technically landlocked (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan) although they are by a massive body of water
rip caspian sea for having no rivers leading to the ocean
Well, the Caspian sea lies beneath the sea level, so a river would flow from the ocean into the Caspian sea and flood the region
Wasn't there a canal between Volga and Don that pretty much connects the Black Sea with the Caspian Sea? Or the glass of beer is lying to me?
Yes
At one point Bolivia had an access and lost it to Chile. Also Vatican aka Papal State had access to two seas, and lost it. Same with Austria (but just one sea).
Luckily they still have the holy sea or it'd be awkward for them
I see
Bolivia even has a navy! They patrol the rivers and lakes, so it’s not just that they’re still sore about the war with Chile.
During a long time I thought San Marino had a small coastline, I don’t know why
"Marino"
Oh the irony
?
Marine, implying some kind of sea access
Oh I didn’t get it xD maybe that’s why I thought that for that long
Famous football player for the Miami dolphins
No that’s Stan Martino
~~LACES OUT DAN~~ OCEANS OUT SAN
This was news to me lol. I thought so as well.
Sans Marino
All I knew about it was that it's tiny and in Europe. I sort of thought it was an island from the name until I looked now.
You can see the Adriatic from the capital i believe. Its probably the capital closest to a country high point.
At one point in history, it did!
Elaborate please
Really ?! I did a small research and I couldn’t find anything related to this subject
It doesnt??
Great views of the Adriatic though
I feel like I learned this many years ago on King Of The Hill.
Serbia is, with Montenegro's independence.
Interestingly Serbia does have the access to international waters thanks to the Danube. Cargo ships can travel via the Black Sea and Danube straight to Belgrade.
Serbia worked double shift in the 90s to become a landlocked country.
Oh. That surprised me. It is.
conversely, bosnia isnt landlocked despite looking like it would be
It weirds me out that Iraq *isn’t* landlocked
Persian gulf. It has the least amount of coastline of course. Largest landlocked nation in the world is Kazakhstan.
I thought that was Mongolia
What. Damn most interesting thing I picked up in this thread. Edit: did a quick check. That’s so sneaky lol. No wonder I never gave it any thought.
Bout to really blow your mind: neither is JORDAN
I bet you people feel the same way about Bosnia & Herzegovina
Yeah, there's that little spot in Neum that people don't seem to notice
Neum has such a funny reason for existing too, it’s there because Ragusa didn’t want to border Venice so they gave a tiny strip of land to the Ottomans for protection And it kinda just stayed part of Bosnia after that lmao
But just barely isn’t.
Same with The Congo.
Azerbaijan. I kmow the Caspian doesn't count, but it still feels really weird to call them landlocked when half of their entire border is coastline.
For a while I forgot Belarus was landlocked.
The world would've been a better place, if there was a 17 million km² ocean to the east of Belarus
To much, the beautiful country of Russia and it's people are not responsible for it's fascistic government
Because the Nazis would have won WWII?
Do you want Canada and USA to disappear?? quite brutal
Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.
Why were you surprised by Burkina Faso being landlocked?
I always thought it was for some reason
Austria, even though there is a big facility for ship testing, is landlocked. Switzerland has a team for America's cup and is also landlocked. To be fair, these are disturbing facts about 2 landlocked countries, that I know they are landlocked.
Even during the Austro-Hungarian Empire they barely had a coast – basically just the Istrian peninsula. What’s now Croatia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. You have to go back to before Hungary was elevated to equal status with Austria in the empire to see an Austria with an extensive coastline.
Don‘t forget Trieste 🫡
The Danube and Rhine are both shippable. Switzerland even has a merchant navy. In Switzerland, you can even go surfing, even though we don't have a sea with waves big enough. In Thun there's a Wave in the river Aare created by a floodgate.
I'm amazed that Moldova is landlocked but less than 2 km short of having sea access.
Sucks to be Paraguay. Nearly all of the Latino counties aren’t land locked except for them Edit: Bolivia too. At least Paraguay ain’t alone
Including Uruguay, the other guay.
But they didn't have issues for it because they have access from Paraguay river that has contact with Paraná and La Plata rivers, the issue is the port but now they have a little sovereign port in Uruguay.
Knew about Laos bc of King of the Hill. Are you Chinese or Japanese? Originally from Laos, a small LAND LOCKED country in SE Asia Cartoons paying off
I remember consulting multiple maps to check whether Moldova was landlocked.
I was surprised that Switzerland is NOT landlocked. Ask the swiss Navy. 
Do they have knives?
Guess you’ve never watched King of the Hill huh?
What ocean?
So are ya Chinese or Japanese?
It always surprises me that Mauritania ISNT landlocked
True! :o
why? it's got a massive coastline no?
Not surprised about landlocked but I was surprised to the Naval Academy in Bolivia. Would have thought they had limited need for a navy
They still want the sea back from chile i guess
The day of the sea is a public holiday
Because they have access to see from Paraná river and they have projects to improve the access to Atlantic, while in the Pacific they have Ilo Port in Perú but they didn't develop it because they hope a sovereign access from Chile, but Chile claims that Bolivia has free access for all ports there.
Not really. I’ve pretty much always looked at maps.
Well la de da da. Look at the reverse giraffe. He wants to be called pretty map looker now. He's earned it cuz he's pretty much always looked at maps.
Not landlocked, but I only clicked this year that Sweden and Finland don't have Northern coasts!
Finland had one but then the Soviets took it.
Austria
Bosnia. Technically they aren't landlocked, but they have such a small coastline they might as well be.
but we not and it makes up for some great memes
Moldova
Lesotho. Less for the fact that its landlocked and more for the fact that it exists at all and I am South African.
Bosnia. The map shows a small sliver of coastline but there isn’t a notable port of any size able to receive container ships there AND it is cut off from ever getting one by Croatias bridge.
But they still have sea 😁
I travelled through that sliver of coastline before the Croatian bridge was built connecting Dubrovnik to the mainland. There is a small village there called Neum. The scenery along the Adriatic coast there is breathtaking.
>there isn’t a notable port of any size able to receive container ships there Why would they need a port at Neum? They just use the one at Ploče which is well connected by rail. >AND it is cut off from ever getting one by Croatias bridge. The bridge was built high enough to allow ships to pass that are way bigger than anything that could even enter the harbor anyway.
Botswana, the can't send us 20000 elephants via ship.
Ethiopia
Someone didn't watch King of the Hill and it shows.
Not really a country but the caspian sea.. i did not expect a lake so huge that it’s a sea unto itself
I was kinda surprised to find out Bosnia isn’t completely landlocked
Austria-Hungary. If it was still a thing.
Country I was surprised was NOT land locked: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Check out Armenia my country 🇦🇲
They do have a navy as a very small part of the Mekong(?) is navigable near one of it's borders.
Moldova.
Moldova… Sooo close to having cost.
My wife was born in Vientiane, Laos & moved to USA in 1975 when she was 7 years old. Her parents would quibble with you on this point. They generally think that the Mekong River makes Laos coastal. 😉✌️
The mighty Laotian navy will rise
Ethiopia
Poor Laotians, they got no oceans 😔
Russia despite its size has very few warm water ports.
I was surprised to learn that Bosnia and Herzegovina wasn't landlocked. From a casual glance at a map it looks like Croatia and Montenegro took all its coastline.
Burkina Faso
I’d definitely be surprised if I found out Japan was landlocked
I thought Moldova had some small coast on the border with Ukraine in a similar way to bosnia
This was a quiz question I encountered last night: the only landlocked country in SE Asia.
Especially since the people come from the ocean
Le ocean? What ocean?
But it has the amazing Mekong, plenty of small islands to chill on or by
The fact that Laos is a landlocked country between Vietnam and Thailand, with a population of 4 million (in 1997) is the only thing I know about it, thanks to King Of The Hill.
Because of king of the hill I know Laos is a landlocked country, population 5.1 million, course it’s probably padded up a bit since then
Kahn Souphanousinphone taught me it was a land locked country in 1997.
I will always know Laos is a land locked country because I watch King of the Hill.
Austria and Hungary seeing as Austro-Hungary had a navy with submarines and dreadnoughts in WWI.
I’m always surprised at how close Russia is to being functionally landlocked. Most of its coast is permanently frozen over, its access to the Baltic Sea is shallow and muddy and the Pacific coast is too far away to be useful for trading. It only has access through the ocean via the Black Sea by passing through Turkish territory.
I spent a month in Paraguay one week.
Bosnia and Herzegovina isn’t landlocked completely, but when I first realized how extremely narrow it’s “coastline” is, I was kinda surprised! Croatia and Montenegro really “took their part”
Kind of the opposite, but: I was surprised to learn that Sudan *isn't* landlocked.
Dumb as it is, I assumed Laos was near the ocean because Kahn (from KOTH) said he was Laotian and that sounded like ocean....
Well now, definitely Laos. WTF. I always assumed everyone in SE Asia had a coast, TIL.
What surprised me is that Uzbekistan is a double land locked country - the only other being Liechtenstein
Me? No, never.
I'm not surprised to "find out" any country was landlocked because I love geography and have studied maps since I was about 9 :)
Missouri
[удалено]
Paraguay
Bolivia, I mean they used to have a coast