The Little Things...

that make Laos what it is. It's really the small things that make living in Laos such an unique experience. Day to day life isn't so different from home but then a little thing will happen and you'll be reminded that you're living halfway around the world, in a communist country.

My friend reminded me of this when she was talking about her impending trip home to Australia. She has been in Laos off and on for four years and thus has more adapting to do when she heads home. From her experience, it's the lack of rules in Laos that make it hard to readjust to a more developed regimented lifestyle. I asked her to clarify what exactly she meant by rules and as she gave examples, I saw that these same things are things I'm slowly adapting to and which caused frustration in the beginning.

Lacking rules in Laos PDR
Traffic - especially if you're a motorbike, anything goes. No need to look behind you or check your rear view mirror, all that matters is what's in front of you, people behind you need to take care of themselves. Stop signs and red lights are more of a suggestion than a hard and fast rule. Use your own discretion and blame the foreigner ($$$) who plows into you if it comes to that. One way street or designating traffic to driving only on the right side of the road....well only when it's convenient. Going against traffic spices things up and is often much more handy. "Right of way" - I'm not quite sure what you're referring to with this statement, we just slowly inch forward until the other car lets us go. Gridlock - well I just kept inching and so did the other car....what can we do? Now we're stuck here and blocking the intersection. Bo Pen Nyang!

 Ques/Lines
We don't actually believe in lines here. You're never going to get on the bus, get served, see the doctor, bank teller, etc. if you just stand there waiting patiently. How ridiculous.


Work hours
This is a direct quote from one of the Lao employees "the day is really long so you don't want to work too hard early on. You have to spread it out over the whole day. Then from 3-4 pm at the end of the day you are really productive to show that you accomplished something today."
Work hours are also a suggestion 8-4, 9-3 what's the difference? We're just going to take a 2 hour lunch break anyway. As long as I'm physically at work, I'm working. Napping behind the desk is work as well. So is getting drunk over lunch and playing BeerLao checkers in the break room. Foreigners like the word "busy", if you tell them you're too busy they usually just leave you alone. I can be damn busy napping a lot of the time. Why would they put these plinths in the clinic room if they weren't intended for napping? I mean really.

Communism - then on the other hand....maybe there are rules, just different ones.

For living in a communist country, Laos often doesn't feel that way. Sure we have ridiculous amounts of paper work and "red" tape to get through before we can do anything, especially since we work directly with the government, but in day to day life one feels pretty free and doesn't see a lot of evidence of communism. Yes, everyone talks about being in the "party" and corruption is rampant, just notice all the BMWs in a country where the import tax on cars is 100%, and all high level government employees are appointment based on their status in the party rather than any actual qualifications, but aside from that.

However, the other day, a colleague was talking about this conference coming up ASEM (the asia-europe meeting) with a bunch of high level officials in November. Apparently, the Laos government is mandating that all homeless people be taken off the streets and kept in facilities (that are understaffed and ill equipped) until after the conference. People are forced to clean up their shops, homes, etc. Women required to dye there hair back to a natural Lao color (black) and where it in a traditional fashion with a traditionally long sihn.

Crazy when the true communist control comes out. Just a reminder in case I forgot where I was living.