Laos a country in decline

[williamta20012]

Laos reminds me of australia a lot, here r some things I noticed there

- they dont produce any thing, they just re-sell thai goods for more than the thailand price

- the people are so proud of Laos, and critize thailand for being too busy dirty and the fact that every one is out to cheat you

- they have great coffee shops

- the number on the note seems totally crazy, and the dont have any coinage!!

- they have a big sign warning people about bringing gold and silver into laos

- the govt like to make rules to "protect" you

- the govt likes to build really big buildings that dont do any thing

- the dogs here in vientiene seem afraid of you

- the tuk tuks are really big

- the people here are darker thai copies and their writing is very very very similar

- lao women are better looking and cuter than thai women

- the shopping here is a bit boring

- the streets are absolutely filthy, thais look after their shop fronts

- there are lots of graffiti and empty buildings in decay every where like australia

- not many lao ppl wear gold

I would like to know why loas doesnt produce any thing???

I know I could be wrong about my bias assumptions, I havent been here long

Edited December 23, 2013 by williamta20012

[MrWorldwide]

Forget Laos - what part of Oz are you referring to with that list ? A couple of points may hold water, but the majority of it just seems like a rant about Laos - nothing to do with Australia.

[Kudel]

Apparently youre smart enough to google for nookie bars in laos and that topic got closed,so google about that countrys history before making silly statements i wonder if you would be able to point on a map where said country is.

[Totster]

I think Laos has a growing mining industry ?

totster

[williamta20012]

I think Laos has a growing mining industry ?

totster

that doesnt explain why they can sew their own shirts together

[metisdead]

Moved to the Southeast Asia forum.

[GreenSnapper]

They produce far better beer than Thailand - and that's what counts.

[Hedghog]

I have always enjoyed my trips to Laos.

Australia I wouldn't know and have no wish to visit.

[briboy]

I have always enjoyed my trips to Laos.

Australia I wouldn't know and have no wish to visit.

I am going to get to Laos 1 day and other than you lots of people want to visit Aus, most are sorry they did when they see the rip-off prices they get charged, the fuel companies being 1 of the worst.

[Lakegeneve]

Laos reminds me of australia a lot, here r some things I noticed there

You clearly have not been to Australia.

I know I could be wrong about my bias assumptions, I havent been here long

Are we talking on the planet in this context?

My reflection reading your post was that when I was a child I probably could have written a post similar to yours in my youthful naivety (I did a lot fo travelling in this part of the world). Thereafter, no doubt I would have read it back some time later as a teenager with the thought 'why the heck did I write something so stupid'!

First impressions of any new country you visit are just that. Keep an open mind and build up your impressions into a little insight preferably with some background research. People who live for years in this part of the world generally still admit there is much they do not understand.

Honestly, reading your post makes me cringe and gives me a strong impression that you had been to neither country but everyone does have their own 'unique insights' into the world around them,

[MrWorldwide]

100% with lakegeneve on this thread - what really ticks me off is that this thread will feature prominently in google search results purely by virtue of the title when its nothing more than a set of shallow impressions from a first-time visitor to the country, combined with a feeble attempt to slam another country by association.

OP, please promise me you'll never set foot in Malaysia - you really wouldn't like it. It's a lot like New Zealand (!) but waaaay hotter .....

(apologies to Kiwis and Malaysians - that was a ridiculous comparison, but necessary)

Edited December 23, 2013 by MrWorldwide

[samuibeachcomber]

what a very strange post from the OP,really not making a lot of sense.

Firstly how can anyone compare Laos with australia.............like chalk and cheese.

While i am not in favour of australia at all(lived there 30 plus years) as it has become a nanny state where regulations/laws now mean it is very difficult to do anything without permission,i fail to see any comparison with Laos.

I have been to Laos many times and love the place,the people and the food.Yes it is more expensive than thailand and yes they do import most stuff from their cousins.I have found the the people to me more "sabai" than the thais,more respectful too.Less prone to violent agitation and generally a lot nicer people.

I would rather live in Laos than in OZ any day.

[bushman1666]

Been to Laos many times. It's a poor country but a nice place to be. Charming, modest people. Their driving is my only point of concern, even worst than Thai driving if that's possible. A legacy of their French colonial days perhaps. Oz is one place on the planet I have no desire to visit. I meet far too many pseudo American, loud mouthed, boastful

Aussies here in Thailand to put me off travelling there.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[ozyjon]

No McDonalds there either

Cannot date / marry without prior authorisation from naiban / village leader (try it) outside the bars, but Laos men can do it (bastards)

[canuckamuck]

At least now I know that I won't have to visit Australia.

[Ace of Pop]

Run By Red Shirts, what do You Expect.

[TPI]

Having spent some of my best years in the "nanny state" (OZ) I have to agree with the OP! One of the things that Lao and Oz have in common is "space"! 21 million in Oz, 7 1/2 million ? in Lao. They're both nanny states, have vast differences between the rich and poor, they both make it very difficult to lift oneself up by your bootstraps economically and interlectually by means of prohibitive education costs, at the top end!

To all of you poor buggars flinching and twitching about a modicom of critizism of the "sunburnt land", grow up! Why the hell do you think so many ex-pat Ozzies are living out of the country?

Why do you think that hundreds of Ozzie ex service men from the VN war are now living in Asia and Europe? Between the Wranger and the budgy smuggler, they've had a complete gutfull!

So there!

[Cyclist]

Laos is definitely NOT a country in decline, It's the fastest growing economy in SE Asia. I first went to Laos 10 years ago and have been going back regularly since. The changes are striking. Before it was open sewers, broken pavements and pot-holed ridden streets, and that was the capital city. Lao people are generally a lot happier these days too with a lot more wealth in their pockets. My only complaint is the increasing traffic and a general lack of respect for 2 wheeled road users but once out of the cities there is very little traffic.

[thailandbeachisland]

Laos is totally useless but will be a good backup place when Thailand will be in war !

[lostmebike]

Silly story there from the OP.

Laos is a developing country with a tiny population of 6 to 7 million I think and it's relatively unspoilt hence it's under-development.

- the shopping here is a bit boring
- the streets are absolutely filthy, thais look after their shop fronts

Not all of us travel purely for shopping you know maybe my mother and her friends but some of us like a bit of adventure which Laos has in abundance. I love the place.

It's wrong to compare Laos with Thailand I think and completely confusing when comparing to Aus.

OP, have you ever been to Aus?

[mike2011]

What I liked and continued to do so in Laos is their non-racist approach. Was it 89 nationalities and national groups that officially make up the overall nation? Try to hear something similar in Thailand or Cambodia. Thailand was Siam before they embraced German nationalism of the 1930s - the hate of Cambodians for their Vietnamese cousins (no matter if they are from Vietnam or are living there for hundreds of years) and their treatment of the Muslims is not better.

It is a great achievement of the Laotion people that they kept that disease under control. Which leads me to the point that they are modest but much more cultured than the so-called Hi-So low lives of BKK.

This does not excuse in any way the atrocious treatment of the Hmong - in which they were assisted recently by Mr. Abbishit (the guy alledgedly educated at Oxford of all places) who had Hmong deported being carried on stretchers across the border. which tells us that even prestigious university degrees have little to do with personal qualities, humanitarian standards or 'culture' as such.

I wish the Laotion people just the very best and will enjoy every single day when I visit these fine people again.

[Cats4ever]

OP - silly man.

[orpheus454]

what a very strange post from the OP,really not making a lot of sense.

It makes as much sense as the one he made about the Thai economy.

(which was none, of course...)

[White Tiger]

OP - "....I would like to know why loas doesnt produce any thing???..."

It does - it produces electricity and exports it to Thailand.

[PeterSmiles]

- they dont produce any thing, they just re-sell thai goods for more than the thailand price

You mean beer Lao is actually Chang with another label ?

[williamta20012]

OP - "....I would like to know why loas doesnt produce any thing???..."

It does - it produces electricity and exports it to Thailand.

ok listen closely my child you wont hear logic from too many people.

There is no reason what so ever to export any thing unless two countries can produce certain product in a more efficient manner giving that country a competitive advantage minus transport costs.

thus if one country can produce oranges in a more efficient manner, ie less time and with less man power due to the quality if soil or access to an abundance of nutrients, that country may want to trade its oranges for a commodity that another country can produce more efficiently that its own community.

today we export for what commodity??????

fish?

we export and recieve foreign reserves,

"but wait a second OP... the producers are being paid in kip?? where are is the baht going???" good question child

each time those foreign reserves come into a country, the centeal BANK ... PRINTS its national currency to buy up those foreign reserves. thus fresh fiat money flows to the producers KIP and the governments get to spend those reserves over seas (usually on arms or spying activities)

thus the benifit of exporting is nullified and your only profit is inflation. LOTS AND LOTS OF KIP (BECAUSE THE EXCHANGE RATE IS SO BAD)

or put another way, today the import export method is broken/usurped by a immoral entity.

exporting electricity to thailand gives inflation the the people and baht to the central bank and govt.

walk through a shopping center in laos, they dont produce ANY THING.

printing pressess and its child fiat money is the reason so many coutries suffer from such large trade deficits. thats why you see so much gold flowing into the countries with trade surpluses.

you wont really have to worry about this untill there is a mass understanding of the problem. then the creditor nations AND the dumb peasants sleeping in their tuk tuks, wearing their red shirts, going on their sexpats journeys will all be grabbing a commodity hands over and feet.

but they govt my just instead decide to demonetise the 1000b note before that happens

I talk to a lot of people, and we r so far from thay stage it laughable.

[MrWorldwide]

OP - "....I would like to know why loas doesnt produce any thing???..."

It does - it produces electricity and exports it to Thailand.

ok listen closely my child you wont hear logic from too many people.

There is no reason what so ever to export any thing unless two countries can produce certain product in a more efficient manner giving that country a competitive advantage minus transport costs.

thus if one country can produce oranges in a more efficient manner, ie less time and with less man power due to the quality if soil or access to an abundance of nutrients, that country may want to trade its oranges for a commodity that another country can produce more efficiently that its own community.

today we export for what commodity??????

fish?

we export and recieve foreign reserves,

"but wait a second OP... the producers are being paid in kip?? where are is the baht going???" good question child

each time those foreign reserves come into a country, the centeal BANK ... PRINTS its national currency to buy up those foreign reserves. thus fresh fiat money flows to the producers KIP and the governments get to spend those reserves over seas (usually on arms or spying activities)

thus the benifit of exporting is nullified and your only profit is inflation. LOTS AND LOTS OF KIP (BECAUSE THE EXCHANGE RATE IS SO BAD)

or put another way, today the import export method is broken/usurped by a immoral entity.

exporting electricity to thailand gives inflation the the people and baht to the central bank and govt.

walk through a shopping center in laos, they dont produce ANY THING.

printing pressess and its child fiat money is the reason so many coutries suffer from such large trade deficits. thats why you see so much gold flowing into the countries with trade surpluses.

you wont really have to worry about this untill there is a mass understanding of the problem. then the creditor nations AND the dumb peasants sleeping in their tuk tuks, wearing their red shirts, going on their sexpats journeys will all be grabbing a commodity hands over and feet.

but they govt my just instead decide to demonetise the 1000b note before that happens

I talk to a lot of people, and we r so far from thay stage it laughable.

There's a reason we don't get to prescribe our own pharmaceuticals, and this is it. You seem far more intent on impressing us with your exceptional grasp of macroeconomics than answering any of the questions posed earlier :

- what is your firsthand experience of Laos ?

- what is your firsthand experience of Australia ?

- why is your brain chemistry so radically different to the majority of board members ?

And you can spare me the condescension - I mightn't be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I have 24/7 access to Google : I can get uninformed opinions at any hour of the day, and the majority will be far better constructed than your efforts thus far.

Merry Xmas,

MrWW

[willyumiii]

Have you tried their beer?

They make something and they make it very well!

Many feel it puts all Thailand beers to shame.

[samuibeachcomber]

very condescending post from the OP.....................Yes the KIP is a basket case as is the cambodian rial,and vietnamese dong.So what,millions of tourist like to go to both countries so there is a steady flow of dollars into them.I really have no idea what they do or do not produce,but i can tell you Laos beer is very good, i think originally brewed and supervised by carlsberg.They also make a mean noodle soup,does that count?

The govt. is communist as far as i can tell and they have strict laws regarding their females and sex tourists,i guess they dont want to be like their thai cousins in that regard.I find that a refreshing change.

[samuibeachcomber]

Having spent some of my best years in the "nanny state" (OZ) I have to agree with the OP! One of the things that Lao and Oz have in common is "space"! 21 million in Oz, 7 1/2 million ? in Lao. They're both nanny states, have vast differences between the rich and poor, they both make it very difficult to lift oneself up by your bootstraps economically and interlectually by means of prohibitive education costs, at the top end!

To all of you poor buggars flinching and twitching about a modicom of critizism of the "sunburnt land", grow up! Why the hell do you think so many ex-pat Ozzies are living out of the country?

Why do you think that hundreds of Ozzie ex service men from the VN war are now living in Asia and Europe? Between the Wranger and the budgy smuggler, they've had a complete gutfull!

So there!

cannot disagree with you,but cant see any posts lauding australia as the land of opportunity,it surely once was but not anymore.