Laos People

We've only spent a week in Laos, and several of those were in a tree house and two of those days were on a boat with fellow travelers, so I can't even pretend to be an expert on the people of this small country, but I do want to share a little about what I've observed.

The Laos people are a kind, cheerful group of people, but their mentality is definitely different than what we have encountered so far. My travel book described the Laos people by saying that if the work wasn't fun for them, they didn't do it. We also saw somewhere that Laos PDR stood for "Please Don't Rush." Both of these seemingly generalizations seemed true. In Huayxai when we needed a short taxi ride, we had to go in search of a driver, then he seemed upset that we were pulling him away from his friends, you know, to pay him. The boats seemed to leave on their own time, not on a true schedule. In Luang Prabang, we wanted to go see the waterfalls, an almost hour away, but a huge tourist attraction. We assumed we would catch a taxi there and then pick up one that was waiting to bring us back, right? Nope, instead, we paid about $20 for the taxi to drive us an hour, wait for four hours while we explored and then bring us back. (Don't worry, we only paid him half upon arrival since we thought this might be a scam, but he was their waiting.) This seemed to be the way of life because the multitude of taxi drivers were all friends and enjoyed spending the time together waiting.

The Laos people are also quite superstitious. I've already mentioned how they gave us better deals at the market because we were "lucky number customer," but they also thought our money was lucky. When we paid them, before putting the bills away, they would tap items in the booth with the bill. We inquired as to why this exercise and they simply said, "for good luck."

The Laos people are also savvy and seemed to take into account that we tourists may not know as much about how things operate or the general cost of things. Keep in mind that the average monthly salary of the people of Laos is equivalent to what I took out of the ATM, so when possible, they were trying to bring in a little more cash, and to be fair, an extra dollar or two here and there certainly didn't break my bank. However, if you're traveling here, have an idea of what things should cost and bargain or at least stand your ground. The people were not at all pushy or forthcoming, so I never felt uncomfortable, just be aware that you can probably get even more for your buck if you have a firm grip on the conversion ($1= 8,194 LAK) and know what things should cost.

We enjoyed our time in Laos, and the people we encountered, but we're also excited for our next adventure!