I purchased Pere Kermann and couple ofothers absinthe drinks in Vientiane:

700bht per 0.7l bottle, 60%

any clues if its original or fake? curious because I didn't notice any special effects besides I've got hammered really quick ;-)

where is the visions, etc?! ;-) or all this extras just a spoiler and I should expect from absinthe nothing but good strong alchohol (which is good indeed!) ;-)

Absinthe, is from my research is difficult to tell what contains all the herbal incrediants to make it genuine and what is missing to make it "fake". Apparently the spelling can give an indication ( the real stuff is spelt with an "e" after the final h. I personally discount this theory ).

Country of source is probably a good indicator as to where it is still illegal will not be producing a genuine item. Currently the best and most genuine Absinthe is coming from South Africa (dubrois brand) and Spain. It is still illegal in France and so the Pernod bottle i bought recently would not be genuine although it was Dr Pernod who devevoped Absinthe as 'a health tonic full of medicial herbs' in the later part of the 1800's. Most Absinthe from the eastern European countries that you see in duty free shops such as Green Fairy brand do not contain the wormwood which is the ingrediant is the genuine incredient.

As Laos was a French colony there could be the Absinthe tradition there and wormwood would most likely grow in the northern , more temperate parts of the country.

I would be interested in obtaining some of it for my collection of Absinthe, so maybe it has solved where i will be heading next. I wonder if there would be problems returning to Thailand with a haul ? Was there any particular place in Vientiane u were able to purchase it from ?