An Ohioan In Asia

Striking it rich; getting a history lesson

July 5th, 2006

Herbal Accutane Proper Dosage Where To Get Aldactone Forum Buying Prednisone Zithromax Dosage Discount Cipro Testimonials Avapro Weight Price For Lotrisone Description Herbal Erythromycin United States Where Order Aricept Online Clinic Seroquel Discount Phentrimine Age Nizoral Tablets Where Order Elimite Description Purchase Ultram Topeka Where Order Flomax Mexico Where To Get Levitra NoRX Generic Stromectol France Herbal Lasix Shipping Herbal Hoodia France Price For Soma Cheapest Pills Amoxil Order Elavil Nashville Order VPXL Columbia Where To Get Diflucan NoRX Price For Prevacid Get High Generic Flomax Weight Natural Levitra For Add Price For Cymbalta Faq Where To Get Diflucan NoRX Where To Get Stromectol Canada Where Order Female Viagra Shop Where To Get Phentrimine Italy Discount Zithromax Online Clinic Order Soma OklahomaCity Purchase Female Viagra Phoenix Hoodia Shipping Lipitor Faq Nexium Generic Stromectol Drug Information Buy Diflucan Charleston Zithromax Erythromycin Review Price For Cipro Free Samples Where Order Elimite Proper Dosage Generic Tramadol Overnight Delivery Where To Get Neurontin NoRX Purchase Amoxil Atlanta Lexapro Dosing Generic Stromectol Weight Propecia Shipping

I finally became a millionaire June 26, 2006. I went to the currency exchange in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and converted $100 into Lao “kip.” At an exchange rate of more than 10,000 kip to the dollar, I walked away with a thick wad of bills, a newly minted “kip millionaire.”

(Alas, my newfound wealth was short lived. I spent less than $50 in Vientiane. When I later tried to convert my leftover kip into Vietnamese real or American dollars or Thai bhat, I could not do so. No one outside of Laos wants Lao kip. Laotians don’t much want it either. They prefer dollars. Many people in SE Asia feel the same way.)

We arrived in Vientiaqne June 26, 2006, and stayed at the Lao Plaza Hotel, a nice, full-service hotel, on Samsentahi Road, a major thoroughfare. The road is being rebuilt and construction crews are busy day and night. The Lao National Cultural Hall is just across the street. It’s the only place in Laos where people can see movies on a big screen. Just not very often.

SAMSENTAHI ROAD

HOTEL EXTERIOR

HOTEL INTERIOR

CULTURAL HALL

I took two long walks in Vientiane. The city has developed a river walk along the Mekong. It’s not fancy, but it is well-utilized. Several restaurants serve dinner on riverfront patios. Women hold an aerobics class in a public pavilion. Young people socialize with each other.

I got lost on my way back to the hotel from the city market. I asked a woman for directions. She looked at my map and pointed me in the wrong direction. Perhaps I shouldn’t have trusted a woman wearing a motorcycle helmet and facemask. (On the other hand, she had just hopped off her bike and it’s not unusual to find bikers wearing facemasks to protect themselves from traffic pollution.)

I kept walking, under intense heat and in the wrong direction, when a man about my age asked me — in English — where I was going. I said I was lost and showed him my map. He began to explain where I should go, then stopped suddenly and called for his mother. She said, “I’ll bring you. I’m heading that way.” I jumped into her pickup truck with her husband, sister, daughter, and grandson in the back seat. It took about ten minutes to get to the hotel.

SON WANTS TO HELP…

CALLS ON MOM

I have found people throughout SE Asia to be quite friendly. It’s sometimes difficult to assess just how sincere they are since many people are selling products and/or services. Many are in the tourism trade. Others want to practice English — I’ve been stopped several times for that — or want to learn about America. I think that most people are pretty genuine, though.

It’s even more difficult to assess whether people here are happy and satisfied with their lives. I asked a man in Laos about this. He said that people were quite unhappy during the early years of communism because the government confiscated everyone’s property. He said that people are happier today now that the government is allowing people to own property and make money.

BADMINTON!

BARBECUE!

BOCCE! (OR SOMETHING LIKE BOCCE)

The economy in Laos is growing, and I didn’t see any evidence of extreme poverty. I didn’t see many beggars. I didn’t see any malnourished children. The streets were clean and people seemed well clothed.

FANCY VIENTIENE NEIGHBORHOOD

At the same time, Laos is a small, landlocked country with a small population — six million people — and few resources. It’s poor. The country generates most of its revenue by selling hydroelectric power abroad. It is also working to develop a tourism industry.

Political reform has come slowly, though people have access to more information and are able to communicate more easily than once before. The Internet became available to students in 2001 and is widely available in Laos today. Most people, though, cannot afford to buy their own computers and the government filters “objectionable” material. Cable TV is widely available and residents can purchase “premium” channels like CNN and the BBC, though again, few people can afford to do so. Mobile phones are common.

THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE

LAO CABLE TV COMPANY

(The communists have ditched Marxist economic theory, but still deny their people many freedoms which people in the West take for granted: freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of (any) religion and so on. They still run one-party states. A colleague of mine says that today’s communists are more “fascist’ than “communist.” Pick your label. It still stinks.)

We visited the National Museum, which is really two museums in one. On the first floor, the museum has an excellent exhibit explaining the early history of Laos, including two artifacts from the mysterious “plain of jars.” The exhibit hasn’t been updated for decades, but it’s still very good.

OUR GUIDE SHOWS US AN ARTIFACT TAKEN FROM THE PLAIN OF JARS

On the second floor, there’s an exhibit on the Indochina War, which is less impressive. It’s basically just a collection of photographs showing communist guerrillas fighting Laotion royalists, the French, and later, the American “imperialists.”

(Curiously, but unsurprisingly, the exhibit makes no real mention of the Vietnamese role in the Laotion conflict. The guide book which we were given at the start of our trip states that the Vietnamese “invaded” and “occupied” eastern Laos, that it developed the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos to supply guerillas in South Vietnam, and that it supplied and funded the communist insurgency within Laos itself. One of our Thai hosts — a man I respect — stated flatly that Vietnam never “invaded” Laos. Rather, it “used” Laotion territory. I’m not sure what that distinction means or why it’s important. Regardless, the U.S. responded with a massive, covert bombing campaign and there are still unexploded ordinances in eastern Laos. The communists won the war and the Laotion people have been poor ever since.)

The government’s attitude toward the United States is evolving. Most SE Asia countries welcome American tourists and investment. They look to America as a counterweight to the growing power of China. But they are still wary of American pop culture, American individualism, and American politics.

We may have caught a glimpse of the government’s ambivalent attitude about America at Vientiene’s Victory Monument. It’s a massive arch, similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, celebrating the communist victory in Indochina. Like most public buildings in SE Asia, the Victory Monument needs a little maintenance. Two of the four stairwells leading from the ground floor to the mezzanine are closed. The structure needs to be restored, though it’s still impressive. A fresh coat of paint would help enormously.

The Victory Monument is one of the most impressive sites in the capital, but American soldiers built it. That may explain this curious sign hanging on the monument itself.

Instead of celebrating the monument, authorities denigrate it.

The government is much prouder of the massive Phra That Luang, the national symbol of Laos, featured on the Laotion emblem. The Great Stupa was built on the site of an ancient shrine in 1566. It is consists of three levels and reaches 148 feet in height. It is surrounded by a cloister measuring 280 feet on each side.

I wasn’t particularly impressed by the Great Stupa. We’ve seen many other Buddhist sites that I’ve liked better. I should note, however, the stupa, which exists today is not the stupa of old. The original stupa was severely damaged in wars with the Burmese, Siamese and Chinese. The French reconstructed the stupa in the 1930s using gold paint instead of gold leaf depriving the stupa of its shine. I walked around the perimeter of the stupa three times for good luck and then visited an art gallery in the cloister.