Three weeks in Laos

One of the advantages to “being in the region”, as we say in the consulting biz, is that work can take you places you might never have gone. Work, in my case the environmental consulting biz, has indeed offered some interesting opportunities. In the recent past it’s sent me to Sulawesi (one of the major islands of Indo), central Java, and Kalimantan (AKA: Borneo). While that sounds fairly cool, which it kind of is (Borneo!), it’s still work, so there really isn’t a lot of snorkeling, drinking beer on patios, and climbing volcanoes involved (zero actually). And, worst of all, no Amy (boo!). Rather, a lot of waiting in dingy airports, driving on shitty roads for ridiculous amounts of time, then walking around in tropical heat and humidity, trying to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Interesting, yes, glamorous, no.

However, this past month has offered up the opportunity for another stint in Laos (I previously did a 6-weeker here a couple years ago). The mission was to provide an expat presence within our Laos office while the guy currently managing the place is away. The office is in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. While Laos is technically an “underdeveloped” country, and therefore lacks things like decent roads and hospitals, Vientiane itself is not a hardship post - quite the opposite. One could describe it as a very pleasant locale, where one can enjoy a beverage of one’s choice while watching the sunset over the Mekong (one of the great rivers of the world…google it if yer curious).

You see, it all starts with the French (well, obviously we could start the story way farther back, but you know what I mean), and their colonization of “French Indochina”. Without going into a history lesson here, during the late 1800s and early 1900s, the French occupied a large swath of Southeast Asia including what is now known as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (again, google it). While the history of colonization around the world tends to be bleak and unforgiving (for good reason), one thing the French left behind – from my street-level perspective anyway – is good food! Things like fresh baguettes, pate, red wine, and chocolate croissants are as easy to get in Vientiane as a beer at an Oktoberfest party.

So yah, coming from the land of nasty goreng (the Indonesian fried rice thing), I was like a kid in a candy store come dinner time. Hmmm, which delectable restaurant shall I dine at this evening? French, Italian…maybe the Belgian place. Fascinatingly, due to the somewhat thriving expat scene in Vientiane, it has a serious restaurant scene reminiscent of the best foodie strips in the west – but at a fraction of the price. All in all, a wonderful change of pace. And as they say, a change is as good as a rest (it’s still work though…lots of it…unfortunately).

The office is a small affair of half a dozen Lao staff including four technical guys (environmental specialists), an admin person, and the lady who keeps the place clean. Oh ya, and the falang – the label given to foreigners in SE Asia – running the place. The usual falang was away for a few weeks, so I stepped in as the replacement falang for that stretch, and hence my “3 weeks in Laos”. Being a small office, it was yet another break from the chaos of the 60+ people in our Bogor office.

As an added bonus, the small office has a couple of suites on the top floor, which is where I stayed, meaning hey, no commute! It was like working at home. Loved it. Mornings were spent sipping coffee on the upper deck watching the daily ritual of monks collecting alms in the back streets of Vientiane (more on that below). Very cool.

Laos is a cool place for many reasons. The coolest thing about living in Indonesia, then spending time in a place like Laos, is the realization of just how diverse and different everywhere in SE Asia is from the place next to it. Laos and Indonesia have about the same in common as a hamster has in common with a 2 by 4.

For starters, Laos is a land-locked country, versus Indo which is basically a massive string of tropical islands. Lao language is a complicated tonal language that uses undecipherable hieroglyphics versus Indo, which uses the roman alphabet and a relatively simple language structure – the end result being that many foreigners learn Indonesian, but almost no one born outside Laos learns Lao (well, except for the odd falang who goes Apocalypse Now on us).

The most striking feature of Laos is that it’s relative empty with only 6 million souls in the entirety of the country. In Indo, that’s a village. Amy and I live in a mega city with 5 times that population. So, you know, that could be the best part of Laos for me: space. Vientiane, a city of about 800,000 feels like a small town. Infinitely walkable, and filled with rows upon rows of good food, cafes, and hipster shops, it’s a great place to be stuck for a while.

Another highlight was being able to hop on my bike and “just ride”. If you’re a road biker, you know that feeling of just pointing it and being on cruise control. Not possible in Indo (Java anyway) because of the insanity of traffic chaos and bad roads, the newly paved highway heading out of Vientiane is a road biker’s dream. New pavement, wide shoulder, almost no traffic, and no end in sight. It was a real treat for a couple of Saturday rides.

OK, pet peeve here to point out: is it Laos or Lao? The answer is Laos. That is, if you are speaking English and referring to the country of Laos. If you are talking about the people, language, or culture of Laos, then it’s Lao. i.e., Lao is to Laos, what Thai is to Thailand, or Canadian is to Canada. You did not go to Lao on your trip to Southeast Asia. You went to Laos (or Lao People’s Democratic Republic [Lao PDR] if you are at a U.N. conference and using the official country name), and ate some Lao food and met some Lao people. In grammatical terms: Laos is the noun, Lao is the adjective. OK, glad we have that under control. I do not want to hear one more person ask me how my trip to Lao was.

Oh, the monks collecting alms thing. Every morning, sunrise time, all across Laos, Buddhist (the vast majority of Lao people are Buddhist) monks walk the streets and laneways of the cities, towns, and villages they live in, collecting food from residents. Not considered charity per se, it’s considered more a way of people obtaining a spiritual connection and giving respect to the monks. Oh, and yes, another huge difference with Indo. Nice calm Buddhists. No 4:30 am call to prayer, for example. Nice.