Should I move to Laos permanently!!!!!!?????!!!!



But being the fickle-minded person that I am, I'm sure that the things that I find oh-so-pleasant and charming will become things that annoy me. Laidback-ness will turn into irresponsibility, friendliness will become naivety and "small town lifestyle" will be synonymous with boredom.

I'm still at the stage where I want to gush over everything that happened in Laos, and promote Laos so much that I might as well be part of their tourism ministry. Talking about it helps me overcome the sadness that I'm no longer there. Over dinner tonight, my sister's bf (Kris) asked me if I felt like I loved Laos more because more of my friends were with me compared to Cambodia. I suppose that that could be one of the factors, but the main MAIN main point is that I felt so safe and happy in Laos. I could walk around at night with no fear. No such thing in Cambodia. :\ But then again, as Sifoo Wong says, "I like walking around Laos at night... I won't dare to walk around like this, even in Malaysia. *pause* Then again maybe the local Laotians don't dare to walk around like this either! Only the uninformed tourists do! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Anyway, a blog entry about Laos that I wrote while I was there:

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Misconceptions about Laos that I heard in the bucketloads before arriving here - the place is undeveloped, the place has no electricity or running water, it has no tall buildings and the people do not speak english. Well, all these thoughts were blown out of the water the moment I stepped out of the plane!

Firstly, Vientiane, the capital of Laos is famous for being a "intriguing mix of city life while maintaining the laid-back charm associated with life by the riverside". Comparing Laos and Cambodia (the last place overseas that I worked at), Cambodia is definitely more developed. Phnom Penh is bigger, has more stores, has larger buildings and more vehicles. Which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. If you want to travel around Phnom Penh, you can wave down a tuk-tuk or a moto easily. If you want peace and quiet and just want to walk around, Vientiane is the place for you. At least, when you are just walking around, you don't get bugged by straggly-haired guys asking you "Tuk tuk? Tuk tuk for you Miss?" like in Phnom Penh.

And no offense to any Cambodians, but even the locals there tell me it's not safe to walk around at night. One of my own colleagues got robbed by a tuktuk driver (drove him into a lonely alley and mugged him). Whenever I worked late in Phnom Penh, the staff there would not allow me to walk home alone after 9pm and would insist that they fetch me back in their motos. In Laos, I can walk around everywhere without fearing of being robbed or becoming a victim of snatch-theft. The food in Laos is good, slightly cheaper than in Phnom Penh, but still more expensive than in Malaysia. Laos is gradually becoming the choice of backpackers around the globe, and there's a lot of development going on here. Perhaps most people would still balk at the idea of holidaying here, but I really do not see why not, especially since Air Asia flight tickets are now so dirt cheap. ;P

So now you have safety, good food and booming tourist must-haves like cheap accomodation, beer gardens, kitschy souvenirs and fresher air (lack of vehicles on the road, remember?). What about the people, you ask? They are all really friendly and nice sorts who are really laid back and easy going. Not to say that the Cambodians aren't ok! They're both just as friendly and you can "click" with them easily despite the language barrier. Seeing people like them really makes me marvel at how Malaysians can be deemed "friendly". We are just not as friendly and open as these people lah.

However, the working style here has both its pros and its cons compared to Cambodia. In fact, it's almost unfair to compare the both. In Cambodia, I was lonelier because I wasn't close to the IT feller there to begin with. In Laos, it's AhSiang aka part of the travel gang! How to not feel more at home in Laos? In Cambodia, they have 11 branches, so it's super efficient and reaping in tonnes of profits and the staff there are extremely good at documenting system errors and finding workarounds. In Laos, there's only 3 branches (maybe opening another one by next year) but the people here have a more "Australian" attitude towards work. In Cambodia, about 50-60% of the staff come back to work on the weekends. In Laos, it's very quiet after 6pm on workdays, what more on weekends, haha. So it's totally different mindsets for both. In Cambodia, the IT Department has about 10-15 people. In Laos, there's only 3, and aside from AhSiang, the other two double up as Accounts & Finance staff. -____-"

I didn't plan to write so much details about Laos, but I can't help talking about it and inadvertently comparing it to my Cambodian "excursion", haha. For the rest of my blog entries, I will just take snippets out from emails that I wrote to Simon (daily! I wrote him daily entries, but I could only *actually* email the notepad files to him on a weekly basis) and accompany them with photos. Too lazy to write more, and too heartsick to try and dig deeper into the recesses of my memory.

I also didn't really get to travel out of Vientiane, except for a one day excursion to Udon Thani (Thailand). I heard from my friend that Luong Prabhang is a must-see. However, it's 350km away from Vientiane, definitely a trip that can only be made by plane. I don't even have weekends free enough to go to the "Morning Market", what more visiting to a different part of the country. Therefore, I really think another trip here in the future (NOT on business) is in order. ;)

http://lecehleech.blogspot.com/2008/10/work-in-laos-i-miss-you-like-crazy.html