Hot dog stand run by the US embassy at the WIG Bazaar in Vientiane this year

I don't really have that much to do with the diplomatic community in Laos although you inevitably run into individuals around the city's venues. However, there is an organisation called the Women's International Group which seems to be run by women that are mostly connected to this community. I have been going to monthly talks they sponsor about Laos and Laos culture. The talks are very interesting and professionally organised. They also sponsor an annual Bazaar where the proceeds go to aid various projects around Laos.

I went for the first time this Saturday and was greatly surprised by the high standard of stalls and the large crowd. There must of been around 200 stalls and many thousands of people visiting.

There were stalls from many embassies of course. The USA, Australia, Japan, Korea, Phillipines, Germany and India I saw were represented selling their "national food" Noticeably absent were Laos's largest neighbours and ASEAN partners Thailand, Vietnam, and China. But then again this was a not for profit event.


The Australian embassy served up a traditional sausage sizzle

I got overwhelmed by patriotic fervour and a nostalgic stomach and just had to have a taste of "home" cooking. The Aussie sausage sizzle bears only superficial resemblance to the American hotdog. The beef sausage is first grilled over a BBQ until the outside has a jacket of nice gritty charcoal and the inside becomes is a dry crumble of meat that falls apart under the tongue. The whole thing is then placed between two layers of very fresh bread that falls apart as it becomes saturated by any delicate meat juices that has survived the flaming. The whole thing is embellished with a thick serving of tomato sauce which must quickly run out of the side of the bread and down your shirt. Those with a more mature palate can add mustard as well as tomato sauce to give a technicolour effect.

While I was waiting to be served a well dressed woman with a fruity American accent passed by loudly saying to her Laos companion "and this is the English stand". Hmmmmm !!!!!! - I hope she was not a diplomat.



The United Nations was well represented in its many forms, with stands promoting its Opium replacement program and its food security and biodiversity efforts.

While most of the stalls were surrounded by curious onlookers, one poor little stand staffed by enthusiastic young people that seemed to be studiously ignored by most of the crowd was PSI. This group whose full name is Population Services International has the mission to improve the health of poor and vulnerable people in the developing world, principally through marketing e of family planning and health products and services, and health communications. So while they were pleased I was happy to talk to them they really wanted to give me lots of free condoms. The young girl, kateuy and guys happily posed for a photos. (which one do you think is the ladyboy)

Many of the numerous international schools were represented and had their students performing for the crowd or participating in the children's activities.



The best part though was the many craft stalls. Many of the NGO's in the country are trying to encourage economic development in the rural villages by marketing traditional arts and crafts. Weaving is especially popular.

The traditional weaving designs and even the contemporary designs are really quite beautiful and can take months to make. Unfortunately the country has no copyright protection and a certain large and powerful northern neighbour is happily stealing the designs and turning out cheap factory made products that are flooding the market and many are being sold to naive tourists as genuine "handmade".

I had some nice phone calls today from Laos friends that had heard I had lost my camera. They expressed their concern so sincerely. Then I had to tell them it was all my fault and I had not lost it but left it behind.

I think I will go back to bed.

It is supposed to be the dry winter season. But it rained this morning and has been quite cold (,by Laos standards) all day. By my standard it has been pleasantly cool. I am still in just shirt sleeves but the Laos are all in wind jackets.

The sink drain clogged up over the weekend. Plumbing standardards here leave a lot to be desired. Actually it would be highly desirable to have some plumbing standards.

The graywater from the upstairs bathroom goes straight on to the roof below, then down the rainwater gutter to an open drain. It took ages to figure out where the sink waste went. Mr V. eventually worked out it joined up with the greywater from the downstairs bathroom and then goes into the same open drain.

He eventually cleared the kitchen waste but then the water came up from the floor waste in the bathroom. Fortunately he then managed to clear that too.

Last month I bought an electric hotplate. Street/restaurant food is so cheap that mostly I eat out and rarely cook at home but sometimes I just have to have something western and familiar, like toast and jam or fried eggs and bacon.

I really missed having some nice buttered toast and jam. It is impossible to buy a bread toaster so I settled for an electric hotplate with a cake rack over it to toast some bread. At 120 000 kip or about $15 it was not expensive for me but it was a cheap crappy made chinese appliance. I only wanted it to occasionally toast some bread or boil and egg so I did not want a more expensive model. Even I have to consider my finances.

There is no consumer protection laws in this country or quality control either so the Chinese export their cheapest nastiest and most dangerous consumer goods that would never be allowed into a western country to developing countries like Laos. The prices they charge are not cheap by local standards either.

I have bought chinese crap before. A pair of chinese sandals I bought lasted all of 3 weeks before they fell apart.

I also bought a small kettle once for $4 but it did not have a cut out switch and boiled dry, the plastic melted and burned a hole in the top of my small fridge. The element was still alive and glowing when I realised and pulled the plug. This particular kettle is widely sold in Laos, I wonder how many fires it has caused.

The next time I bought a $40 kettle but it leaked water all over the place and fell apart after about 3 months.

If you can, most people go across the border to Thailand and buy better quality appliances there. But ordinary Laos do not have that luxury.

Anyhow, my nice new hotplate made lovely toast, even if it was a bit slow to heat up and I had to stand there watching it. But only about three times, the fourth time I tried to use it, it refused to work. Another piece of chinese crap. When will I learn and stop buying this stuff. I shoved it aside and went back to eating sticky rice for breakfast. I whinged to Mr V the other day about chinese products in Laos. He listened in silence. Then the other day I noticed he had pulled it apart and was playing with the switching mechanism. Now my hotplate works again.

In western countries we never bother to repair things anymore. The cost of labout is so high and the cost of new so cheap we have forgotten how to repair or reuse or just make do.

One thing I admire about the Laos, they are immensely resourceful

Do other people have those dizzy days when you just seem to do stupid things, one after another.

Mr V. and I were prepared for a frustrating day because we were planning to visit some govt offices to get me a work permit and 12 month visa. Doing business with govt here is an unbelievable ordeal involving many different departments and forms. So I was mentally prepared for a difficult day.

It started at the first department when we arrived just on lunch time. The person on the desk refused to give us a form because the person who gives out forms was at lunch.

" But all I want is the blank form there, right beside you", I said.

"Bor dai", cannot, must wait, was the reply.

I have done this scene before, only certain people are allowed to hand out forms so I knew it was useless to argue. So we went across the road to a rather expensive french restaurant for our own lunch. It was a pleasant enough meal but nothing to write home about and I blew my whole days budget on a hamburger and fried chicken for the two of us.

Back across the road the "form hander outer" was back but would not give me the form without first seeing my passport. I started mentally kicking myself for thinking I can go to the immigration ministry and not take my passport, second blunder.

"Why do you need to see my passport now, I will show you when I fill in the form and bring it back." I pleaded.

"Must see" was the stony reply.

Then a flash of brilliance. I always keep a photocopy of passports and licenses etc under the seat of my motorbike. I never show the original to the police because they have a habit of confiscating it and then wanting a "gift" to hand it back. So Mr V. goes and gets the photocopy of my passport which has spent many months under the seat and is somewhat dirty and ragged but it is good enough to satisfy the "form hander outer" who gives it a superficial inspection then hands over the form for a 2000 kip fee. (that is actually standard here, all blank forms from govt departments cost 2000 kip per page, but I don't know if it is "official").

We get back to the bike and notice that the form is an application for an ID card. So we go back to say they have given me the wrong form. I want a form for a business visa. The form hander outer insists this is the right form. We shrug our shoulders, we know this is only the beginning of the campaign. We have many more departments to visit and forms to collect, so we head back to the restaurant where we had left the bike.

At this point we decide to split. Mr V goes to the post office while I go to another office building. It is after this visit where I step out of the lift on the wrong floor not once, not twice but three times that I realised I am no longer carrying my backpack with my expensive new Nikon camera. Oh shit I thought, where did I put it down and forget to pick it up.

Mr V. arrived back at just that moment so I sent him to check out the restaurant where we had eaten earlier while I went back into the office building I had just left. No luck, no one had seen it. With rising despair and sinking hope we went back to the office we had first visited. No one has handed in my bag.

Even if someone had found it I did not expect it to be given back to me. A thousand dollar camera would have been a big temptation for an ordinary office worker or someone who saw me put it down and forget to pick it up.

The waiters in the restaurant said they saw me leave with my bag and go into the office building but I was not carrying it when I returned.

All my earlier mental preparation had now fled me. I was feeling sick and angry with myself I told Mr V to take me home so I could do the Elizabethan thing and go to bed.

When we get back to Palais de Sihom, there sitting on the ground where I park my bike is my backpack with camera safely inside.

Now memory is a funny thing. Mr V. said he thought he saw me carrying it and the waiters in the restaurant said I had left carrying it and I certainly could have sworn I had taken it with me.

I was now very hot and sweaty and bothered so I went and hid in my bedroom for the rest of the day.

When I emerged some hours later the nice Mr V. had given my bike a badly needed wash.

The annual Rocket festival which is celebrated at the start of the rainy season involves the women a lot more. They have much more license to perform, even the older women, sometimes in quite bawdy ways.

Having promised to be more regular in my updates I find myself reading other peoples entries but still out of the habit of writing my own. So this week I will plead the "boring" defense. That is I did nothing particularly interesting.

I finished up at the VT at the end of last month for a while. I plan to go back early in December when the SEA Games start. Since I have got the internet at home now I spend a lot of time having some quality surfing time.

I have also gone back to day trading as a way to make some money. I don't trade that much, the connection is too slow to be a really serious trader but this week I have made a couple of hundred dollars. I'm reinvesting all the time so it doesn't actually give me any money to spend but maybe in a couple of months there will be enough surplus to take the edge off my cost of living.

Then there is "Wonder Boy". He went out to the shops a couple of days ago and I haven't seen him since. This is not cute anymore.

There is a room free in my house so I had Vone painting and cleaning it up. I hope I can find someone soon to fill it or I will have to pay the rent.

The other people in the house wanted to keep the "maibaan" (maid/cleaner) on after the landlord stopped paying her so it is costing us all another $20 a month each. Even though she only spends about 2 hours a day cleaning, it is kinda nice to have someone pick up and cleanup after us all. It saves all those arguments about who left all the dirty dishes in the sink.

The guys down at "Tam Chai Deu" are really sweet. They cannot possibly be making any money but they are having fun. I think the manager has a secret "patron" somewhere funding things. They have built right next to one of Vientiane's most exclusive Boutique Hotels and resturants. Not surprisingly they constantly get complaints about the loud music.

I notice that the music has become a lot more gentle, at least during the day when I go. I suspect they will have to change their target market before much longer. They have really chosen a silly place for a disco, nightclub. They cannot attract a young Laos or even the backpacker crowd and the middle-age, middle class tourists all prefer to go next door and pay three times the price for the same beer or coffee.



Boy Wonder helped with painting one day. "Never do" he says. I have not seen him since

I have found a new bar on the river to watch the sun go down each evening. The young manager tried to open as a gay disco bar but it has been spectacularly unsuccessful. Jt is totally the wrong location and passing trade who are all middle aged tourists. I never come down late at night but at dusk I am usually the only customer. So I get extra special service from the staff who are usually standing around bored to tears.

This suits me perfectly because I am way past the techno/loud music stage of life. I far more enjoy a quiet drink, pleasant scenery and a flirt with the waiter.

I guess like lots of people who surf the internet you try out lots of different things and applications which you reject or use for a little while and then forget about them.

I have tried out several google apps over the years which I found I did not use and they have laid dormant. I have also used different logins, for different purposes which I rarely or never use now or have forgotten. But the internet never forgets.

Google have just put online a "dashboard" which gives access to a lot of the information which google has stored on me ..... I was surprised by the amount of info they can bring together under one site. I really should not have been because at the back of my mind I know what they can do, but actually being confronted with it was the shock.

Oh! well, the loss of anonymity in the brave new world of the internet. I guess there is a cost for everything.



Laos coffee is an interesting experience. "Cafe hon sai nom" is served by many roadside vendors, especially in the south, the main coffee growing region. It is a strong thick brew served in a glass over a layer of condensed milk. It is a good heart starter for the day.

It has finally arrived, internet connection at home .... It is the cheapest around but still an expensive 400 AUD for just 25Gbytes at the blindingly fast speed of 256/512. But no more trips down the road to check my email. No more internet cafes full of school kids (who are supposed to be at school) yelling at each other as they a playing games. No more asking the girls on the desk to recalculate the charge because they have got it wrong.

No more excuses not to keep my Livejournal up to date. ......

So the latest I have been up to is a visit to the areas of southern Laos hit by Typhoon Ketsana. I suggested to the senior editors at the VT that they should send someone down there to report on the damage. Hmmm!!! they thought, good idea, then nothing. .... very Laos.

So I was taking a break anyway so I went down myself took some pictures and wrote an article. The only article that has appeared in the Laos media since the floods. .... It was almost as if it was a non event in the country. Nearly a month later the aid agencies are only now starting to make an assessment of the flood damage to the remote mountain ethnic communities.




Teacher showing the height of the water in her village school

AFTER KETSANA - The hardship continues as the cleanup begins.
By Vientiane Times Special Correspondent.


( my article here under the cut. )

Usually I cannot remember all the classic mangled english I come across. But an item in a menu at a Laos restaurant the other day will stick in my memory for a long time.

Fried God - served with chilli and basil.

Eat ya heart out Liz

Just about every city and town in Thailand will have a portrait or monument like this of the their King or Queen or both on major roads and in town centres.

Market in Bangkok


My goodness and amazement, I find myself in agreement with our former PM John Howard. (at least in agreement with his rhetoric).

I have often found myself in agreement with his rhetoric but vehemently in opposition to his conclusions. Today in an opinion piece in the SMH he says

"The three great guarantees of Australian democracy are a robust parliamentary system, an independent and incorruptible judiciary and a free and sceptical press."

I especially like his description of a sceptical press. It is therefore ironical that he was most diligent in trying to muffle the role of at least some of that sceptical press on the board of the national broadcaster the ABC by stacking it with conservatives and constantly complaining about the left wing bias of the journalism.

In arguing against a "Bill of Rights" he sarcastically argues for the supremacy of parliament against an "incorruptable judiciary"

"The adoption of a charter or bill of rights would represent the final triumph of elitism in Australian politics: the notion that typical citizens, elected by ordinary Australians, cannot be trusted to resolve great issues of public policy, and that the really important decisions should be taken out of their hands and given to judges who, after all, have a superior capacity to determine these matters"

I am sorry John but that is just the point some typical Austalians cannot be trusted to resolve these issues simply because they either lack the intellectual capacity (remember the appointment of a certain Albert Field to the Senate by Bjelke-Pertersen) or they are more interested in an agenda of their own choosing. Sadly, a lot of them have been elected to Parliament and most seem to sit on the conservative side.

I was undecided about the issue of a Bill of Rights but now having read your reasons against it I think I am firmly for one.

Vientiane Times’ staff not only bring you the news each day but regularly on Friday before going home they put into practice one of the slogans (cleaning) in the campaign to beautify the city through the “six slogans” (hoksor) initiative,

They other, cleanliness, security, lighting, peace, ..... Hmmmm!!!! no one could remember the others.

Who is that good looking guy at the end ... oh !!!! its me.

Journalists and officials from the Ministry for Information and Culture celebrating Lao Media Day. .....

One of my jobs is to edit the classified advertising. While a lot of copy comes in print ready a lot is also composed in house. Even the print ready stuff has some awful and funny errors in it. But we are not responsible for that.

As a sophisticated western/Australian reader I have a culturally imprinted glossary and set of values I expect to see in advertising. It therefore makes composing and editing advertising material an interesting experience in the clash of cultures.

For instance, as a farang house hunter, in real estate advertising I want to know how many rooms a place has, if it has a view or a garden, has it got plenty of light. The Laos house owner wants to advertise the size of each room down to the decimal point in square metres, what floor it is on, that it has a high wall around the property and secure parking for a car.



I am sure it was not intentional but to show that the meat was Australian beef the advertiser in this print ready copy chose this road sign which is actually a safety sign to indicate that kangaroos are a hazard on the road and motorists should be cautious. I think North Americans have a similar sign for deer and moose.
Most Aussies will know that Australia has a significant meat industry for both export and domestic consumption for kangaroo meat which is very controversial with some groups of environmentalists.
The irony of using the iconic kangaroo as a motif for fresh meat may be lost on non-Aussies but is quite funny to us.

Then there is the problem of transliteration. Laos language lacks tense and plurals and a few other grammatical niceties. (which is actually a good thing I have discovered but I will keep that for another post) One ad for a truck said it had “back light” which is a literal translation of the Laos word. I wanted to change this to “reversing lights” which is what an English speaker would understand. But then I was told that there is no Laos word for reversing and a Laos reader might not understand. Hmmmm !!!! what do we do, make the literal translation and make the ad sound funny or use the western word. I am still waiting for an editorial decision from higher up. Note, this was also an important accessory for the advertiser who wanted it given high prominence in the ad.

Its been some 20 months since Gary died. I think I am finally getting over the loss.

( some maudlin musings under the cut if you are interested. )

The week goes so fast now. It seemed like only yesterday I went to Thailand for my monthly visa run. Even though I work for a govt agency I have to go to the border once a month for a tourist visa which has the condition that I must not work.

Last time I worked for the VT it was the same and they were organising my visa.

This is an authoritarian one party state, but the laws are rarely enforced and when they are they are not applied consistently or equitably.

One very real problem is the country has no laws covering many areas of life. After the revolution they abolished the previous constition and laws and ruled by party decree. What they did not realise was that most of the laws were procedural and needed just for the state to function. Thirty years later that are still trying to bring in laws that had been developed over hundreds of years simply to make the county work.

So the rules, if there are any, are often unclear, out of date or superceeded but no one really knows by what. The only way to get business done is to bend, ignore or bribe your way around them.

Everyone knows this and it applies from the least important government regulation such as paying the postal clerk an extra couple of thousand kip to get your own mail out of your own box, up to the highest levels of govt.

The company I work for has spent months and tens of hours navigating govt bureaucracy to do the right thing and become legal registered. The poor young manager would have to stand around for hours at a time to get to see an official behind a desk only to be told either
a. he was in the wrong ministry
b. he had filled in the wrong forms
c. a t was not crossed or an i not dotted go away and fill in the form again.
d. it would take a month to get the forms stamped so he could take them to the next department but if he paid a "fee" he could have them tomorrow.
e. all of the above.

The latest hurdle has been the tax office. He went along to have the company registered for taxation. He was told, ok but we would have to make an upfront tax payment based on 10% of our office rental. We said at this stage we were working from home and did not have offices and anyway why did they base the tax on an expenditure and not income. They just stonewalled and demanded an up front payment of over 400USD which we refused.

We asked around for some advise from people and some quite senior officials laughed and said just ignore them, wait for them to contact us and then give the tax official a "gift".

It is just an accepted part of doing business in this country.

Malaysians have been told in one of their major daily newspapers "Bernama" 10/Aug that in order to avoid catching influenza A (H1N1) they should stop masturbating and avoid homosexuality but normal sexual intercourse is OK.

Waiting his turn at Keoliew Harbour in Vientiane

Although I am 4 hours behind Australia and the network for the the" Ministry of Information and Culture" is painfully slow it is good to be at a desk again where I have "always on" internet. I can check my email (and of course LiveJournal) several times a day now. I often have to check on "facts" so an internet connection is essential.

The pressure to keep working is relentless as the articles for editing from 20+ journalists keeps queueing on the server. There are only two of us here at the moment but it really needs 3-4 editors to do a proper job. I start at 10 am each morning and rarely get away before 8 pm.

Up until around 1-2 pm I have time to have the journalist sit with me and we work through the article together. Often their poor expression makes it difficult for me to even get the general gist of what they are trying to say. By mid afternoon however the pressure is really on. I just have to sit and rewrite.

The proof sheets start appearing around 4-5 and one of us starts correcting them the other stays on editing last minute copy. Food is delivered around 7 pm. Sometimes we eat and work, sometimes we take a break. I might get away around 8-830 pm or stay on until the paper is put to bed at 9.

I have been writing this during a rare lull. There has been nothing on the server for about 20 minutes now .... that is not good, it means all the copy will come in at once later this afternoon.

example from journalist.

A detective official reported to Vientiane Times yesterday that a major gangster booming himself, while crime officials were charging him at That Luang village Xaisettha district Vientiane on Monday, were death after having a treatment at a hospital.

my edited version

The man pulled out a grenade which he detonated while struggling with police, it was reported. The man was taken to hospital but later died. The injured police officers are in a serious but stable condition in the police hospital.

Quirky Laos - Generous TIGO
Laos is a nation in transition. Sometimes it lunges forward with quite progressive policies and actions, then it falls back into old habits.

It has a quite an extensive mobile phone network throughout the country. Probably because it is cheaper to install than fixed lines. There are 4-5 mobile phone companies. But they have tried to do it on the cheap with not enough capacity or redundancy in the system. Here in Vientiane for instance it is not uncommon to have to try several times before you can get a connection.

They also have internet access in all the major regional cities. But it is slow and unreliable. I read recently that the National University has plans to establish its own linkup with a Thai University across the river in order to have a better network.

In time for the South East Asian (SEA) Games being held in December the phone networks are upgrading to 3G. This is really quite an advance for a small deveIoping country. I hope they build in a greater capacity and reliability this time. But I dont think they will

There was a curious article in the Vientiane Times recently when a high ranking Military officer from the Defense Ministry advocated renationalising the Phone network on the grounds it was important for the army to control telelcommunications in time of war.

I dont think he got much support for his" innovation" from the rest of the govt fortunately




Mobile phone companies which have to recoup huge investment costs in their expensive technology as quickly as possible are not usually known for their generosity. But TIGO in Laos have come up with a new twist in long term planning now that they are offering mobile phone recharge cards valid for a thousand years.

Hard at work in the newsroom of the Vientiane Times

Well my current assignment with NagaGreen and funded by ABV has officially finished. While I will miss the small amount of money they give me (not even as much as the old age pension) it does mean I have more flexibility to do my own thing.

I have told the guys I will continue to work with them anyway unofficially. But it also meant I could go off and trip around the countryside without feeling guilty. I was even planning to go back to Chiang Mai in Thailand for a month or so to see friends.

But plans are always flexible and things changed quickly again this week.

The Vientiane Times has sent a couple of messages to me since I left them two years ago asking me if I had the time to help them out again but I was always too busy. But last week I said yes, but only for a short time, as I did not want to be tied down for too long.

I loved working there in 2007. It had been such an interesting and novel experience for me.

Journalism is not something I had any background or training in, but neither does anyone else in the place. I know I am not even a particularly good writer. So I am in good company. But I do have the advantage of being an long time newspaper reader and coming from a country where we have such a dynamic free press you just pick up all the media ethics and procedures.

The last time I worked there I was told upfront that as an English sub-editor I was only there to advise and edit the English copy only. I would not have any editorial input.

The young journalists were so keen to listen and learn from me that this was totally impractical. They had had no training in appropriate writing styles but even I knew enough to teach them about style as much as grammar. Then it was only a small step to make suggestions about stories and soon I was teaching them how to research articles and give interviews.

The Laos editors knew this but I was never told to stop or that I was overstepping the mark so I kept pushing the envelope.

On two occasions they planned to publish articles that I thought were unethical and even dishonest and I went to senior management and expressed my concerns. They made the decision to publish. I told them OK, their decision had cleared my conscience but it also meant if there was any public or official backlash they could not argue that they had not been warned.

Although I think I made senior management feel uncomfortable at times I don’t think they resented it. They were always friendly and courteous towards me. In a number of small ways I even noticed they shifted a little.

But it was still a bit of a surprise when they kept asking me back and when I finally went back this week I was given a fantastic welcome by everyone. I think it had something to do with the fact that they are currently very shorthanded. They were down to just one English editor and it really takes 3-4 to put out the paper.

But the nicest thing of all was the way the young journalists one after another came up to me and said how pleased they were I was back and hoped I would stay on full time this time.



Note to self posted on the side of one journalists computer