Jealous ? Educated lao girls are still hard to get for foreigner,s so they can only get the ugly ladyboys....

certainly not been my experience

I think it's just people who sit around all day in cafes talking with other expats - they tend to hate everyone, including each other. Pay them no heed!

Small minds discuss other people.

There are quite a few snobby expats living here in Laos. They usually frequent a certain restaurant/bar in the centre of town. The OP may have stumbled into said bar and been unlucky enough to bump into them. Most work for NGO's, some are wannabe teachers also. It's quite a small and tightknit community in VTE. If you think the expats in VTE are bad, try going to Luang Prabang!! Thankfully most of the Ozzy miners have had to pack their bags and relocate due to recent mine closures

They are jealous because Thai ex pats wives can reach the middle shelf.

Ok really because they are skint, even more skint than a skint Thai ex pat. Probably more skint than a Phillipino ex pat.

Skint = miserable, everyone bar girls treated me like a king when I was a 2 week millionaire.

Maybe similar to what the Scots think of the English or the Canadians think of the yanks.

Oh, you mean jealous? That's possible...

Or maybe feeling guilty about being protected by their more advanced neighbors to the south, and still complaining.

There are quite a few snobby expats living here in Laos. They usually frequent a certain restaurant/bar in the centre of town. The OP may have stumbled into said bar and been unlucky enough to bump into them. Most work for NGO's, some are wannabe teachers also. It's quite a small and tightknit community in VTE. If you think the expats in VTE are bad, try going to Luang Prabang!! Thankfully most of the Ozzy miners have had to pack their bags and relocate due to recent mine closures

That's kinda sad to hear.

That restaurant/bar….KJD??

Why should people be friendly just because you're the same race, speak the same language or come from the same country?

That was a huge bugbear of mine in the UK.

Getting dragged or picking up the missus from a gathering or birthday party, to be pulled inside to stand around with the other husbands, trying to make small talk with a group of people, I had no interest in talking to, had nothing in common with other than the nationality of our wives.

Painful conversations about the strength of the baht or how, even though they had never lived in Thailand for more than a few weeks at a time, they wanted to buy a house there and settle down.

My favourite was listening to some tool tell us how when he got married he never paid sinsot, and in the same breath boast how he had built his mother in law a 2 million baht house.....jesus I am glad to be away from that.

Now I can just stay in Thailand again, and glare at people who try and make eye contact with me or want a conversation.

Been to Laos a few times and all I can say is BORING. Probably the most boring place on earth.

I never got the $50 tour but what I saw sent me to sleep and the people are boring too.

There are quite a few snobby expats living here in Laos. They usually frequent a certain restaurant/bar in the centre of town. The OP may have stumbled into said bar and been unlucky enough to bump into them. Most work for NGO's, some are wannabe teachers also. It's quite a small and tightknit community in VTE. If you think the expats in VTE are bad, try going to Luang Prabang!! Thankfully most of the Ozzy miners have had to pack their bags and relocate due to recent mine closures

Last time I was in Vientiane about 8 years ago I thought of an interview I had recently seen on CNN which took place in Kabul:

CNN to young boy: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Young Afghan boy: I want to be an NGO worker.

CNN to young boy: ... and do you know what an NGO worker is?

Young boy: Yes -- he's someone who drives a Land Rover!

There are quite a few snobby expats living here in Laos. They usually frequent a certain restaurant/bar in the centre of town. The OP may have stumbled into said bar and been unlucky enough to bump into them. Most work for NGO's, some are wannabe teachers also. It's quite a small and tightknit community in VTE. If you think the expats in VTE are bad, try going to Luang Prabang!! Thankfully most of the Ozzy miners have had to pack their bags and relocate due to recent mine closures

Last time I was in Vientiane about 8 years ago I thought of an interview I had recently seen on CNN which took place in Kabul:

CNN to young boy: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Young Afghan boy: I want to be an NGO worker.

CNN to young boy: ... and do you know what an NGO worker is?

Young boy: Yes -- he's someone who drives a Land Rover!

and wears a Tilley hat

Easy. The expats in Laos tends to be the elites whereas the ones in LOS tends to be the bottom end scumsn who are required to constantly do visa runs.

Avoid Vientiane as there is so many nice places to see without any french or western influence.(and not over run with westerners)

I recently came back enthralled after a 11 day and 1,800Km tour on a CRF 250 Honda, admittedly some of the roads are <deleted> and the drivers in the same category. Have been to the capitol VTE quite a number of times and it is becoming like any popular Asian getaway.

The beer Laos is great and Cambo beer is the same, heads and shoulders above what we have here.

Next trip from all reports is Myanmar, apparently the drop of nectar surpasses both the afore mentioned countries!

Do you have any top spots to recommend in Laos? Looking forward to a report, and want to hear about your road trip to Myanmar. Good fortune to you.

There are quite a few snobby expats living here in Laos. They usually frequent a certain restaurant/bar in the centre of town. The OP may have stumbled into said bar and been unlucky enough to bump into them. Most work for NGO's, some are wannabe teachers also. It's quite a small and tightknit community in VTE. If you think the expats in VTE are bad, try going to Luang Prabang!! Thankfully most of the Ozzy miners have had to pack their bags and relocate due to recent mine closures

Last time I was in Vientiane about 8 years ago I thought of an interview I had recently seen on CNN which took place in Kabul:

CNN to young boy: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Young Afghan boy: I want to be an NGO worker.

CNN to young boy: ... and do you know what an NGO worker is?

Young boy: Yes -- he's someone who drives a Land Rover!

and wears a Tilley hat

Many are working for NGO's making big money. Some of those execs with the NGO's are making $200,000 per year. So, they may feel superior to the more lowly visa runner type. Just a possibility.

Jealous ? Educated lao girls are still hard to get for foreigner,s so they can only get the ugly ladyboys....

Funny that as my last time there I had a 19 year old university student passing me bluetooth photos of her in her school uniform!

She was probably a first year student. If she lasts the next four or five years there she might become semi-educated at best – but only about things 'Lao'.

its news to me so would like to know more

There are quite a few snobby expats living here in Laos. They usually frequent a certain restaurant/bar in the centre of town. The OP may have stumbled into said bar and been unlucky enough to bump into them. Most work for NGO's, some are wannabe teachers also. It's quite a small and tightknit community in VTE. If you think the expats in VTE are bad, try going to Luang Prabang!! Thankfully most of the Ozzy miners have had to pack their bags and relocate due to recent mine closures

That's kinda sad to hear.

That restaurant/bar….KJD??

No, not too far away though.

I think they can stay in Laos easier than the visa runners can stay in Thailand, and maybe there's less prostitution in Laos so it has a more business oriented image. I don't know though, that's just my perception.

Vientiane feels really international and a little Western compared to any Isaan city (which is where the visa runners are likely coming from).

It might feel a little international due to the cafes and nice beer but when you pull back the little touristy facade they have going the abject poverty throughout Laos is downright depressing. I do love my little visa runs to Vientiene though.

I'm off to Laos soon on a visa trip let me know the name of this bar so I can go in and piss off the NGO types.

Does it matter they are only on a visa run......

On 31/03/2013 at 0:27 AM, danbradster said:

I think they can stay in Laos easier than the visa runners can stay in Thailand, and maybe there's less prostitution in Laos so it has a more business oriented image. I don't know though, that's just my perception.

Vientiane feels really international and a little Western compared to any Isaan city (which is where the visa runners are likely coming from).

Biggest load of horse chestnuts I've ever read on here. 

On 4/6/2013 at 11:46 AM, dighambara said:

My first thought was Whaa the Hel...??? Then - HMMM a Visa Run is juat a way to get around the law. People commenting on someone skirting the law - very normal.

Less Prostitution..?? A very large percntage of prostitutes from Nong Khai to Pattaya are Lao - someone is living with a closed mind.

International and Western were not reasons for moving to Thailand, which still has a nice rural feel throughout all of Issan - not claustrophobic like horrid Bangkok, which was a sewer in the 60's and is worse today.

 

He said there is less prostitution in Laos than Thailand and that is true and could hardly even be in dispute. As you said the Lao hookers go to Thailand where it is more tolerated.

 

One of the reasons Lao  Ex pats don't give Thai ex pats much respect is their entire conversations can revolve around the lack of bar girls in Laos. The other fascinating conversation tends to be about cheap guesthouses near the Thai embassy and why although they sapeak perfect bar girl Thaiglish they can't negotiate a cheap tuk tuk to take them the three blocks to the Thai embassy.