Laos forum

Note, I've amended the post above to embed the Youtube video into the post (with the linked URL below). Nice work wacharinov!

Yes, there's slow town.

wacharinov you are a Thai backpacker right?

Madmac Thai tourists might look for different things than you. Notice the shots of the western backpackers? The food is kao piak sen. All Asians love noodle soup. Kao piak sen is only found in Laos and is very delicious.

I like Huay Xai for many reasons, but you might well not like it for the same ones if any. Usually I am coming at it from a completely different direction so I am happy to see all things central Lao, and modern. ATMs, internet, kao piak, pate, round eyes.

Somsai, alas I am not an asian tourist. I don't like soup much at all, although an occassional Gulasch from Germany is OK. The place just looked dead in the video. I'm not into small towns and I've seen enough temples to last a lifetime. I like cities, nice Cafes where I can get a good Capacino, nightlife, Italian and German food (and Somali and Indian), good dancing, boxing... This place looked short on all of those things. I'm glad it works for you, but I to me it just looked like a boring, dusty border town.

Bizliz it has nothing to do with being an expat or living there. After all every other person responding to the post either lives or has lived in SEAsia, two are ethnicaly South East Asian. The ability to enjoy local culture is a facility that can be put to good use wether in one's own country at a county agricultural fair or in a small river town across the world. Understanding what you are seeing helps.

In the tin of fresh ingredients I thought I recognised fresh banana flower cut very thin and in a bowl fermented soy paste, lueat in the soup. Probably wacharinov or wandering cat recognise the other vegetables. To the unassimilated expat it's just a bunch of Asians eating weird food. It's too bad really. Not the unknowing but the not wishing to know.

Other parts of the video appeal if you can put the background in context. I don't know anything more about the video other than I assume the person who made it is Thai, and the people in it are his freinds. I know some Thai people who backpack in Laos. One is a banker and the other in IT, both have advanced degrees from American Universities where I met them. Young Thai backpackers are often sophisticated, educated, travelers. They have enough local understanding to enjoy the country fair equivalent that is Huay Xai. Coming from a similar culture and speaking a language almost the same they are both of the culture yet apart from it at the same time. The food is somehow familiar but different and very fresh, likewise the sounds and feel of the street and disco. Imagine the oportunity of visiting the Australia of fifty years ago. That might well be how it feels to a Thai backpacker.

Somsai
You are trying to make the arguement again that to appreciate Laos you need to have some sort of deep understanding of it - or you need to be culturally sensitive - or you need to be very intelligent. Perhaps. But this ignores the fact that there are lots of people with all those qualifications who do not like boring, dusty border towns.

I actually think Liz is onto something here. Things that my friends get a kick out of when they come here to me are just routine. I just shake my head wondering what they find so interesting.

On the flip side, I love Dire Dawa Ethiopia for reasons that are inexplicable, and Somalia is one of my favorite countries in the world. But that has to do with politics and violence (OK good food and hot women don't hurt either). The dusty, crappy border towns there are still just that. They don't even have the discos or vehicles we saw in this vid - although the food is better.

The bottom line for me is that towns like this are just boring. I like to DO things, not SEE things.

The bottom line for me is that towns like this are just boring. I like to DO things, not SEE things.
...
"If you aren't a big veggie fan, and don't like fish, [...] then SE Asian food in general (recogning there are exceptions) isn't going to be a big hit."

How relative everything is... Sweet.

Go there before the 3th bridge finish.