This is related to why the French settled in Quebec iirc. The French king didn't want to send settlers too close to already-established Spanish colonies such as Mexico or Florida, so he ordered that French settlers would settle in the Americas at the same latitude as the métropole, as he thought the climate would be the same.
I don't know much about them, but from what I have heard the conditions that Laos found itself in led to a rather unique path in building Socialism. For example, land was already distributed rather justly when the Revolution took place, so they didn't end up collectivising land (other than decreeing that all land is owned by the state as the representative of the people). Furthermore, due to how poor the country is, Laos seems less interventionist than other socialist states: for example (staying on the topic of land management), when attributing new housing to people (such as newly married couples, etc.), the state (in the form of local governments) actually only attributes the right to build on the land and leaves them to build the houses themselves (generally, people within the same village/family/clan will all participate). In fact, children often build their house on their family's land, next to their parents' house. Speaking of family structures, the government has been wary of disturbing traditional structures, so most ethnic groups still have rather unique ways of living (including some almost matriarchal structures, though I couldn't tell you which ethnic groups those are from).
"My friend," abbreviated "MF"