When I arrived in Laos – more than a week ago – I didn’t notice much that was different from Thailand, except for the little things.
However, I had time to get to know the country better in a week. I have already written a few words about the environment, now I will share my thoughts about the people.
The adults
After a week, I can already see that people live differently here than in Thailand.
Here I can establish a connection with far fewer people in the blink of an eye. Far fewer people look at me, and even fewer smile back than in Thailand. And many of those who do look at me do not express any emotions at all, or do not smile back.
For now, I attribute this to the fact that people here have more problems. Maybe the poorer environment, more problems, is the reason? I obviously haven’t been able to find out yet, but if I get the chance, I will talk to the locals about it.
Communication!
I am noticeably further north. Very few people here speak English, and most of them only know a few words.
If I want to drink coffee, I have not been straining my English skills for a long time. It is simply necessary to do it, that is the key. When I say “Coffee Americano ice, no sugar”, I always trust that the plan will work. In my favorite restaurant – because there is one – I have twice already received a large mug of hot long coffee after the above order, with a huge mug of sugar on the side.
There is only one woman in this place who speaks perfect English. Now I order coffee from her, and by the way, she already knows what I drink. Today it turned out that she is not from here…
During the conversation on my birthday, it turned out that the host was Thai.
Based on this, I think that I am very foreign to the locals. Not just another tourist among many, but also someone whose behavior and language they don’t understand.
There’s a big distance between us. My smile doesn’t even penetrate it now.
The elderly, especially the old ladies, almost always smile back at me if I say hello at the same time. They also appreciate the greeting in their language!
There’s another layer among the older generation that approaches me with some curiosity and less directness. Teenage boys may not have yet hardened into what their parents might be into, so I feel more openness from them than from their parents.
The children
Well, they are in a completely different category – if you can categorize them at all – than Thai children.
In one week, young children gave me a lot of great experiences.
Yesterday I saw a little boy fishing by the side of the road. He had a small fish on the end of his rod. I looked at him curiously and wondered if he had just caught it or if he had just set it up to catch a predatory fish with it. He gave me the answer. He smiled at me with a wide smile and proudly showed that he had just caught it. I returned his smile with 100 teeth and gave him a thumbs up, saying that it was a nice catch.
Today I was sitting by the side of the road when a beautiful little girl – she was sitting on one side behind her mother on the back of the motorbike – started waving at me with a huge smile. She was so charming that if I had had any problems, she would have definitely chased them all away.
Sometimes the children went in groups in front of me. They looked back at me over their shoulders, laughing. They also rushed towards me a little as I approached them. Then they disappeared around a bend, but when I also reached the bend, they looked from a decent distance. And when I started waving at them, several of them waved back with wide smiles.
When there are more of them – I find – they are always more daring. One day they came a little behind me, then they dared to say “hello”. And they seemed so happy when I said the same thing out loud to them.
Once, a little girl from a courtyard looked at me with distrust. Seeing this timidity, I bowed to her and gave her a wait. She immediately started smiling and returned my bow. It made me happy that I could resolve her distrust.
There is a Buddhist monastic school in the village. So I see monk children walking in pairs several times a day. I usually greet them, with the greeting that monks should have. We greet monks without words, bowing and showing a wait. They don’t return the greeting, but it’s part of the culture, no one expects it.
But it was such a great experience when I saw disbelief and pride in one of the boys’ eyes at the same time. In vain, he was also a child and not yet a monk. That was okay!
You could give many more examples, because children are actually much more direct.
Today I told a friend about this. And I can agree with his thought as if it were my own.
He asked me, “Can’t you see your own childhood?”
I think this may be the secret. I lived in a socialist country as a child. Without the Internet, computers and phones. There was nothing to distract us from the real world. This is not nostalgia or regret on my part, it is simply a fact. We lived differently.
We played with what we had. And what we found lying around. Or “we acquired”. I will never forget that I planned to build my first spaceship from a kilometer stone dug into the ground. By the way, I am not too late for that. Maybe I will start tomorrow. There is a nice example on the main road not far from me.
So, we had a different view of the world. And of people too.
Maybe these children are even more open and that is why I can connect with them, that is why they bring me so much joy.
And maybe I really did not only return to socialism, but also to my childhood.
A little bit. For a little while.
Back to my childhood at the age of 50…
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
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