Lovely sword Ian. Congratulations. Thanks for sharing. I would go for more southern Laos...Vietnamese borders...you can see the sino vietnamese influence on the blade shape.
Unique handle design, oval cross section like a Chinese/ japanese sword...the samarit handle and wire overlay we have seen before but not in this pattern which imitates more of the flat braided handle wraps of japanese and chinese swords...very neat to see something in a variation not seen before! Awesome! Thanks for sharing!