The Laos traveler

In Vientiane, the capital of Laos, I walked into a wine cellar.  (If walking into a wine cellar in Southeast Asia seems odd to you, remember that Laos was a former French colony.  Everything drips a mix of Asian and French in Vientiane.)   The girl working the counter was fast asleep sitting in a chair, her head resting on her folded arms.  It’s a common site in Laos, perhaps something to do with the hot sun beating down on you all day.  To call Laos lazy doesn’t mean the Lao people do not work, on the contrary they work very hard.  Rather it means they truly know how to use their downtime.  I cleared my throat and said, “Excuse me,” and the girl jumped up, grinning and grabbing a wine menu and a glass and led me to a table.  Even though Laos is no longer a French colony, they apparently still get good French wine for cheap.

The video below reminds me a lot of being in Southern Laos.  The North has a much larger tourist scene and I spent most of my time there with other travelers.  The South was different.  I didn’t have to choose between locals and travelers because I only got glimpses of other Westerners, never actually coming into contact with any until I hit the 4,000 Islands in the Mekong.  As a result, the majority of the South for me was spent among the Lao people.