Falling in love with Laos

First impressions of travelers to a new country aren’t always reliable indicators of what one can expect, but from the moment we arrived in Laos, Dottie and I fell in love with its people.

In fact, what impressed us most about all five of the countries in Southeast Asia that we visited during our recent trip, was the naturally open, friendly, kind and welcoming nature of the people.

One example: While waiting in the Hanoi airport to board our plane to Laos, I browsed the airport shops for a case for my glasses, the snap on the one I brought having broken off.

The shops had vast selections of many gift items, but nothing quite so pedestrian as a glasses case. The proprietress of one of the shops, after showing me several types of little purses that were just not the right size, put up her hand, gesturing me to wait for a moment.

She went over to her cash register, picked up her own glasses case, and handed it to me, indicating I could have it. She would not take any money for it. Of course, I thanked her, but it was such an unassuming act of kindness, I wanted to hug her. However, unsure if that would be appropriate, I found something in her shop to buy, just so she would at least have made a sale.

Every time I open that case, it reminds me of the best part of our experience – the people who beguiled us with their sweetness everywhere we went, and especially in Laos.

It began with our arrival when we were greeted by virtually everyone we encounter with a sort of prayer gesture known as a “nop,” usually done with both hands pressed together in a prayer in front of your body and accompanied with slight bow or nod and a smile.

It was, of course, how our guide Vanh greeted us as we exited the airport baggage area, and how we were greeted at our lovely hotel, The Avani, in Luang Prabang, and everywhere thereafter. It was the gesture that went with hello, and thank you.

There is something quite disarming about this practice. It is more personal than a simple verbal greeting, and oddly more intimate than a handshake.

It was early evening when we arrived, so after settling into our room, we decided to take a stroll through the special “night market,” located just across the street from our downtown hotel. After 5 p.m., several blocks of the main street are cordoned off for pedestrian traffic only, and hundreds of local vendors spread their hand-crafted wares on the sidewalks and tables, in hopes that visitors like us will do some serious shopping, which we did.

The people of Laos have good reason to dislike Americans. From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped more than two-million tons of bombs on that poor little country, making it the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. The bombings were part of the U.S. Secret War in Laos to support the Royal Lao Government against the Communist Pathet Lao and to disrupt arms traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The bombs destroyed many villages and killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians. And a third of the bombs did not explode, leaving Laos contaminated with many dangerous remnants, which killed an additional 20,000 people since 1973. More recently we have taken steps to remove and destroy the unexploded bombs, but each year they still cause dozens of casualties.

Nevertheless, the people welcomed us warmly. They were friendly, engaging and quite interested in knowing all about us, and open to sharing their life stories in return.

More about Laos next week.