Back in the LPDR

1. gratuitus and contracturally required 'engrish' shot

2. The new national stadium

3. The influx of new Chinese made cars, the Hilux clone is called the 'Wingle' which means that the marketing department of a multi national car company does not use wikipedia. Where is Clarkson when you want a sarcastic analogy.

4. The new 'Vientiane nite Bazaar' your 'scoop' reporter shows picture in daytime

5. J.D.Decaux imperialist agrression via bus shelter







Welcome back blog followers and a big hello to newbie’s, for those of you paying attention this is my 3rd sojourn into Laos and the purpose of this blog is a. to massage my fragile ego by informing the world at large about my exploits in far flung places b. to help keep my sanity by having a forum where I can try to relate my experiences to people who have never ventured to this part of the world. Seriously though I do find producing a blog very cathartic and the more people that are made aware of some of the problems which are faced by a little known third world country (“Isn’t it pronounced with an ‘s’ ?”, “ Laos, that’s in Thailand isn’t it ?”) the better it is for the people here. Also it seems that many of you enjoy my rantings and my vaguely acidic sense of humour.
This stay will be pretty short, I am off to the UK in a few weeks to catch up with mum who is still recovering from a serious car accident earlier this year and I hope to catch up with the flotsam & jetsam of humanity I am pleased to call my friends. I also think I will pay a visit to Standard life insurance to try to recover some rogue cash which is owed me; they are a bit like the mafia except a little more corrupt.
I arrived two days ago following a too long a journey from Erawan. I usually stay for a few days in Bangkok to catch up with friends and family but my lady friend, Vene, is off to Hanoi on the 21st for 2 weeks so I wanted to see her before she disappears otherwise we might see each other on this leg. I have not seen her for six months so we have some catching up to do. The journey took over 24 hours door to door which was way too long and perhaps not the best way of doing it. It was good to see Vene again, beautiful as ever. but I was far too tired.
The usual array of communications problems, Virgin Global roaming in Laos doesn’t work, my Laos SIM card had expired and the Hotel internet I think is donkey powered. I was eager to log on to MotoGP. com to watch the races from Phillip Island this morning and I managed to catch a total of 7 seconds of the 125 race before giving up on the whole Idea. I sorted out a bike pretty easy a new Honda 125 wave, which is much much better than the Chinese made Yze I had last time. In the next week I will start browsing for be something more substantial that will get me to at least Laughbroban and hopefully all the way to Fionkville in Cambodia on my next trip.
I have been fairly busy since I got here, I managed to catch up with Sunny who is making great strides with abundantwater project (please check out www.abundantwater.com if you haven’t already) Doug (Lao Techno Engineering) is out of town for a few days in Sekong province. The recent typhoons have caused severe flooding in Laos most southerly and poorest provinces, two villages have been completely submerged, quite a number of people were drowned (numbers vary) and thousands of people displaced. I understand that you wouldn’t hear this news as the global condemnation of he “Hey Hey Its Saturday” Michael Jackson skit is a more newsworthy item, oddly enough nobody in Laos is aware of he controversy and I am beginning to suspect it is not the global news issue that the Australian media is portraying.
The big upcoming event in Vientiane is the 25th SEA Games (South East Asia Games not ‘sea’ games as some smart arse pointed out Laos is completely landlocked). An Olympic type competition restricted to South East Asia (they exclude Japan and China because they will win all the gold medals) and the largest sporting event that Laos has ever staged. A previous blog from last year showed pictures of the new stadium under construction, today I rode my trusty steed out to see the progress and to be honest it is a nice looking stadium, quite small for a national stadium I am guessing at about 40,000 capacity but architecturally interesting and the build quality doesn’t look too bad considering it is a country without any standardised building regulations. Some of the surrounding infrastructure still needs a bit of work, the main road is still under construction and they are in the process of installing street lighting, a bit of a novelty in Vientiane. The rest of the town is getting a bit of a face lift, there are a host of new buildings cropped up since I was last in town, they are repainting the roads and taking the trouble of picking up all the beggars and street urchins and depositing them on the outskirts of town ( we don’t want the smell). The other recognisable addition to the city is what must be JC.Decaux single largest contract. Bus shelters have broken out across town like a rash of zits on a boy bands face. I must admit it is rather odd as I have not seen a recognisable local bus service, but it must be important to get good looking shelters before a decent bus service. Apart from the VIP coaches which are long distance buses they only have local tuk tuk’s and songtao’s, by a quick estimation that would make the shelter the same value as 20 buses.
I sincerely hope that many of you recognise the fact that my abrasive sense of humour may tint every aspect of Laos a slightly dark shade, the truth is I love the place and feel very much at home here. Things are chaotic and things do not work all the time, it is dusty and cannot be said the cleanest town on earth but the people a friendly and welcoming and generally seem to be a lot happier than most of the people in the west. I do believe the posses something which we have either lost or loosing in the west . To me the drive for consumerism and collation of personal wealth driven by aggressive marketing we are being sold a belief that we can only achieve happiness by attaining a lifestyle that we can neither afford nor achieve. My personal draw to Laos is the fact that it is a ‘happening’ place, things are moving quickly and people with my skills have an opportunity to make a big difference with tangible results. Oddly enough my contribution to Laos society will be driving them more to the mass marketed, mass consumerism society that they so envy in the west, thus completing the circle. Final year students using one side of the paper only.. discuss.
Enough ranting, I have a number of things I need to do, Saturday a 3 day trip to a place near Vanviane to look at converting a brick making machine at a commune of anarchist anthropologists, or that what I understand it to be, should be an interesting trip.

Catch you all on the flip side.