Yes, they're around 20% of the population, but it isn't like they wear a big red H so you can tell them apart.

matthew, I'll reply to your post when I have more time.

Wear a hat that says, "Nyob zoo" imo.

Have you heard of any plans to build a modern day hospital in Vientiane?

And have you ever had any problems with any Laotian people? like you being a foreigner, and they are wandering what the hell you are doing in their country.


Peace........Matthew

Laotian people, in general, have been some of the friendliest I've met in my travels.

Alright, I'm thankful for your response.


Matthew

where exactly is this starbucks equivilant in vientiane?
i'm looking for a decent connection for getting in a few sessions..

have you ever gone tubing in vang vieng?

Joma cafe near the fountain (Nam Phou). It's about $2/hr if you buy it in 2 hour blocks.

Van Vieng is a great escape for a few days but the number of backpackers drive me nuts after a while. To deal with them I'd suggest concentrated artillery fire to break up their formations followed by a motorbike cavalry charge before they can regroup.

edit: remember sunscreen if you go tubing

Matthew, as I've said, people either love or hate the city so definitely visit to see what you think about it. Some random points in no particular order:

The people of Laos are the friendliest and most generous I've ever met. As a white American they seem fascinated by me and the US in general. 250k Laotions (current population ~6 million) have emigrated to the US so everyone has a friend or relative there. They love our music and movies and don't view us as imperialist devils at all.

Vientiane is going to change a lot in the next 10-20 years. A mindblowing 80% of the population are subsistence farmers. The economy is expanding and modernizing and there's going to be a lot of urban migration.

If you have money, you would need to really **** up in order to go to jail. You probably would have to leave the country if you committed a serious felony though. Definitely avoid anything political.

You have to accept the fact that you might be forced to flee the country with only what you can carry.

While health care here sucks, you're only 30km from the Thai border town of Nong Khai which has a decent hospital. If it's something very serious you can be flown to better hospitals in Bangkok or Udon Thani. The problem isn't just facilities, it's also training since most doctors fled after the communists took power in the 70s and many Lao nationals work abroad where they can make more money. Any decent foreign health care plan will include evacuation to Thailand or even the US if necessary.

You can't really own property. You can get long-term leases or buy things it your Lao wife's name, but if they decide to screw you there's nothing you can do about it. There's a new development where foreigners can own property outright, but the government can always change that on a whim.

Corruption is a double-edged sword. If you have money you can do pretty much whatever you want. Want a business visa if you're not doing any business? No problem! Want to cut down a bunch of old-growth forest? No problem! Of course if you want to set up a restaurant or get married or something you'll have to pay some bribes but they usually aren't very much.

Sleeping with Lao women (or men if you're female) is illegal. This is generally only enforced if you're living together but carries a, um, stiff penalty of $500-$5000. So either get married or preemptively pay off the right people.

Well you really went into detail, and I'm very thankful for your answer. Like I said I will be ready for retirement soon, and I will plan a trip to Vientiane, in the very near future.

I've been to Mexico seven or eight times, and really liked it. But now that America is deporting many illegals back to Mexico, there has been many Americans kidnapped or even killed, by angry Mexican gangs.

A good buddy of mine is a cop in Monterrey, and he said he has never seen it this bad before in his twenty plus years on the force.

Health care is my main issue. I was diagnosed with glaucoma when I was 17. When I quit smoking pot for a while, I was put on two new eye drops, just to relieve the pressure. So for a while I was taking three different eye drops, five times a day. Now that I'm puffing on a little mother nature again, I'm back to my one eye drop, twice a day

This is the main reason I'm looking to retire overseas. A so so pot friendly country, low cost of living, and beautiful women.

Once again thank you for your informative blog. You have not only informed me, but probably many others about Laos.


Peace.......Matthew

One thing I forgot to mention, health care prices. Between Blue cross, Aetna, Cigna, I'm looking to pay $350-$400 a month. Plus a $1,000 to $1,500, deductible annually.

Peace....Matthew

i'm in luang prabang now. going to vang vieng in a couple days. i have a flight out of bangkok on april 7th, so until that time i'm free. i've seen most of what i wanted to see in vietnam, cambodia, and thailand already so it pretty much just leaves laos. what would you recommend doing for 3 weeks here?

tubing/caving

I'd probably try to get to vientiane though, I was bored after a few days in vang vieng.

I would look into some eco-tourism or ethnic discovery trips. Help take care of elephants, stay a few days in a remote village, etc. There are a couple companies specializing in this in Vientiane and I'd imagine they also have branches in Luang Prabang, so just walk in and see what trips are coming up. I've heard the Plain of Jars is really boring, just a big open space with randomly dispersed huge stone jars.

3-week opium binge?

Taking a cruise on the mekong would also be nice.
Here's a list of tour operators; I would stick to the ones with websites: http://www.ecotourismlaos.com/touroperators.htm

Can you tell me more about caving in laos, where can i do it? dangerious? expierence needed? tour guide? cave diving possible?

of course i'll make it to vientiane for a little while. i got to luang prabang by means of the slow boat from huay xai so i've had my mekong delta boating fill. i reckon i'll do a couple days of tubing/caving in VV, then head to vientiane. a couple days there, and i was thinking of heading south towards the 4,000 islands and maybe doing a kayaking trip around there. anyone ever gone down that way?

Tubing is so standard in vang vieng, you can ask anyone. You go up to a shack, pay the money, sign the form, and they bring you to the 'take off' point in a tuk tuk. It's very safe, and you can even rent a life jacket if you're worried.

As for caving, you can find about 10 different tour companies in the heart of the city. You can check them all out for yourself and find a package that suits your needs. You can set up almost any activity from any of these vendors.

It's all v v v easy to find and set up once you're there.

i gotta say tubin' in vang vieng is the pinnacle of awesomeness. those rope swings dominate all else. i impaled myself so many times trying ridiculous stunts. will probably stay here at least 1 week, then kayak down to vientiane. screw the busses. laos is great so far.

OK, this is probably going to be the best trip report I've ever posted.

Still in Vang Vieng. It was my 4th day there. I go tubing and proceed to get ******edly wasted. Much drunker than the time before, and doing much stupider things on the rope swings. Everyone was getting on great and having a good laugh so after tubing we went for dinner, and then on to the bar. At the bar I'm pretty sure I was spitting on people and didn't have a chance in hell at picking up any chics. The bar shut down around 12, and I made the drunken stumble home. I really wanted a bottle of water because I planned on waking up and tubing again and knew I was extremely dehydrated and would likely be done for if I didn't get some water before sleep. This one restaurant just by my hotel was just closing up, and I asked them if they had any water. There were no customers left, and they were pretty much closed. This local Lao girl who was standing on a bench, told her friend in Laos to fetch me a bottle of water. I assume this is what she said. Then in my drunkeness I figured it would be a good idea to pick her up, so I grabbed her and slung her over my shoulder. She was giggle-shrieking the whole time, but not really opposing the whole ordeal. She then says something like ''You big, strong'' to which my reply was the ever trusty ''wanna bang?'' Much to my surprise she says ''you wait me, we closing 1 minute, i go with you''
Sure, ok. The other girl brings me my bottle of water, I pay her, and seriously within a minute me and this chic were walking back to my hotel. She was a nice little Laotian and we proceeded to bang for a while, until I assume I passed out. Thankfully I woke up, and she was still there, and hadn't stolen all my stuff. So we bang again, and I tell her I'm going tubing for the day. We make a plan to meet at this bar at 10pm that night. She asked for my name, and I know I told her the night before and was in no mood to tell her again, so I just lied and told her it was Jeff. That turned out to be very clutch. Now I had all intentions of meeting up with her because she was a nice little hottie, but things went awry.

I go out tubing again. See some of the other folks that have been around for the last couple days. Carry on doing the usual of drinking, tubing, swinging. At this one bar we start playing beach volleyball, and I take a liking to this girl. We start chatting away and she's really cool. She's from Canada too and we're getting along good. After tubing we went out for a bite to eat. She was saying how much she likes The Office and I had a bunch of episodes on my little media player, so she came back to my place to "watch the office" It's funny because that's pretty much all that happened. We started watching it, saw about 2 episodes, and then passed out. It was around 9pm, and tubing really takes the life out of you. Especially multiple days in a row. This is where it gets interesting.

There's a loud banging on my door. I stir awake thinking what the ****. Look at my watch and it's 12:30am. After I come to my senses, I realize it's that Laos chic. ****, ****, ****!!! I look over and we'll call her Jill, was still there, and she too was waking up to this loud banging on my door, the window too, and now there was shouting as well. ****. I really did not need this. I had no interest in Jill and Lao chic crossing paths. Not cool. I look out my window and say "What the ****, who are you?"
I then open the door, and make sure she cannot enter. I start asking her what the **** she's doing and who she is. She then starts calling me Jeff, which was completely awesome. I started saying "Who the hell is Jeff? You're clearly drunk (she wasn't), you have the wrong person, what the hell are you doing at my hotel? Please leave, I'm trying to sleep"
I didn't really know what she was trying to say because I was trying to stay on the offensive. I told her I didn't know who she was, and she had no business at my hotel, and that it was 12:30 and she was crazy. I got fully outside the door and kind of closed it behind me. Then I gave her $5 and told her to find another place and that I was sorry I couldn't help her. She was still shouting, and kept saying Jeff, and I was shaking my head. She finally calmed down and left. God. Crisis averted. I go back to bed, and Jill was asking what that was all about. I played it off like it was just some drunk with the wrong place and she thought I was this dude Jeff, and I was very confused. I never did get to bang her though, maybe in the coming days.

I kind of feel bad for the Laos chic. I'm not sure if I should try to find her and apologize or just let it be. I did give her $5 which is like a week's wage, so she should be happy.

This town is awesome.

Nice TR, there's something about this country that makes you drink far more than is sane or rational. Messing with SE asian chicks like this is playing with fire--the kind of fire that will cut your dick off while you're sleeping.

I surprised the girl didn't pick up on your name change. At least one time in the morning I've gotten "What your name again?" "[my first name]." "Last night you say your name [my slightly simpler last name]." WTF?

what a wicked place. 2 days after that, i go tubing again. i'm dead tired, and set on not going out that night. i was leaving the next day and really didn't want to be hungover because i was kayaking from vang vieng to vientiane. i go to the internet around 8:30, stay for an hour, and when i'm paying the internet chic asks me if i want to drink with her and go to the bar.
how can i turn that down? she was hot too. so i started drinking with her and a couple of her friends at the internet shop for about an hour and then we headed to the local bar. i was the only white boy in sight. it was pretty funny. i think one of her dude friends was starting to get a little jealous and was giving me bad vibes. it didn't really seem like i was going to score with this chic, i think she just wanted to bring me out and have a good time and show her laos buddies that she has farang friends. i stayed for about an hour, and was beat so just headed back to my hotel.
laos chics are cool.
i'm in vientiane now but only staying 1 or 2 days, then going to head to 4,000 islands. sadly don't have much more time left in this country.

I'm going Vientiene on a visa run from April 2 to April 5. How far is Vang Vieng from Vientiene? Tubing seems like a great way to waste a day.

VV is a couple hours by bus. Most buses will leave Vientiane in the morning and leave VV in the afternoon, so you'll probably have to stay a day. NewTeabag accidentally purchased a map of Van Vieng so I'm sure he'll be happy to lend it to you.