I've never been to Laos but I live in Texas where it's hot about 11 months out of the year.
I generally have light skin all year round so I don't really tan unless I'm outside without sunscreen for a very long time and even then I don't really get dark, more like red and then I get sort of a bronze color tan instead of the dark olive tan.
Did you not wear sunscreen? A tan is nice but gotta take care of your skin, be careful skin cancer and premature skin aging.
Try Ambi Fade Cream, it's a skin lightener as well but it's made specifically for people of color (meaning anyone who isn't caucasian), it works really well for me, I use it on scars to even out my skin tone, works pretty well, within a week my scars were barely visible.