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Not many updates this week as I went on a short holiday to Laos, how short? Read on...
I also moved apartment, I had been staying at a friends place for the last week between apartments and now moved into a new apartment, read on...
I made a trip to Laos earlier in the week. I was planning on staying 5 days for a change of scenery and to get out of Bangkok for a while before I am trapped here for the next 3 months on film shoots.
Mukdahan, Thailand looking across to Savanahket, Laos
Unfortunately my experience in Laos rivaled my last visit there in terms of obnoxious people and I left after 2 hours.
Laos is a poor country, prices in Laos are about 1/2 of what you expect in Thailand - except if you are white, then the prices inflate dramatically.
Seeing as I was in a border town and they all speak Thai (they get Thai TV stations), and given that I speak Thai to them you would expect that their tiny brains could work out that I am not a European tourist loaded with buckets of money and throwing it around on a 2 week holiday. It would also suggest I live in Thailand and I know the prices for things.
No, not to these tiny brained fools. I had a white face and that only means one thing to them - stupid tourist.
Not even the fact that I ordered and ate the well known Isaan/Laos very spicy green papaya salad (Som Tum) and ate it without complaint (it is very hot and the first time a foreigner tastes is generally the last) could get the message through that I live here.
So anyway they serve me this TERRIBLE Som Tum, so bad I could barely eat it. The chicken I ordered with it was dry and I could only just force it down and the sticky rice (Khao Neow) was so dry that I managed a few balls but that was it.
Then she charged me double what the price should have been in Bangkok.... and argued that it was fair.
Next I tried a different place and got a bowl of beef noodle soup, double price though the people there were polite and nice and it was a large bowl.
Next I tried a taxi driver, should have been a 50 Baht fare, the idiot wanted 250 Baht for his fare, then laughed in my face when I told him it was expensive and he was joking for sure.
At that point I spoke to him in English that he fully understood, and questioned his ancestry, his birth defects and his brain capacity. Wiped the smile off his face.
I then went and bought a boat ticket back to Thailand.
I get back to Thailand, a pretty female taxi driver picks me up, smiling, courteous, quotes me a high taxi fair, I speak to her in Thai, offer a reasonable fare - she accepts.
World's Prettiest Tuk Tuk Driver?
I get dropped back to the major bus station, some college students are there, they strike up a conversation with me, we have a joke and a laugh for the next 15 minutes.
Thai College Girls
Then I go and buy some food - oh no - normal cost, no price gouging.
Fantastic, I love Thailand (outside the tourist areas).
So all in all I travelled 12 hours on a bus, each way, to get to a largely inaccessible part of Laos to be treated like an idiot, luckily I was able to enjoy the North Eastern Isaan region of Thailand instead.
One tip I did get, a New Zealand girl who was there on the same day said she ate a nice lunch in a French restaurant, and it cost her the same as my culinary misadventure.
And here in lies the secret to enjoying Laos, it was a French colony, so ingnore the locals and spend time enjoying the remaining influence of the French.
UPDATE: My next trip to Savannakhet, Laos was much better
Moving Apartment
I also moved apartment, I am still near my old apartment, a little closer to the gym, in a little newer room. It is slightly smaller but I have a HOT SHOWER! For the first time in over 12 months I have a hot shower, still no running hot water but a hot shower is a welcome bonus.
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