Does Australia have the expression "no worries" legally trademarked?

If not, the Lao People's Democratic Republic should seriously consider picking it up as their tourism ministry slogan. Sure, the name might sound imposing: "People's Democratic Republic" hasn't exactly been synonymous with "one heck of a fun time" throughout the 20th century. However, the Laotians definitely know how to chill, and this characteristic definitely seems to rub off on whoever ventures off the beaten tourist track, and finds themselves in this landlocked beauty of a country.

Now, you must understand that "beaten track" is a wholly relative term, that I'm using in order to contrast Laos with places such as Thailand. The town that I'm in now, Luang Prabang, definitely has its fair share of obnoxious package tourists, as well as a good deal of self-righteously-proclaimed "low impact" tourists such as myself (is it grammatically acceptable to have a three-word-conjunction? Oh well, someone has to shape the future of our language, right?) But it's definitely not Bangkok, and away from the "major centres" (also a relative term), there seem to be plenty of opportunities to actually see Laos for what it is.

Which is a major reason that I drastically changed my travel plans, substituting my previously-anticipated trip to Cambodia with a gallivant to *drum roll*.....

Vietnam!

Cambodia would have been awesome. It really would have been. The fact that I was going to meet up with my lovely friends Anna and Lauren there, and will now have to wait an extra two weeks or so to cast my gaze on their stunning countenances, crushes me. But the simple fact is, if I left for Siem Riep in the next couple days as originally planned, I would be flying out of this country without seeing any of it, other than a well-manicured tourist town and the sights obtained on a boat journey where I was surrounded by Westerners chugging back Beerlao, rice wine and a variety of other unidentifiable fermented beverages. This way, by traveling to Vietnam over land over the course of a couple days, my intellect not only get the satisfaction of becoming acquainted with Laos from a less-touristy standpoint, but my vomit also gets the satisfaction of becoming even more acquainted with the side panels of a Laotian bus.

OK, so maybe the second part isn't so desirable. But it will all be worth it, I'm sure! The history-geek side of me will also be getting a bit of a treat, when I visit the "Pathet Lao" caves near the Vietnam border in Vieng Xai. Essentially, these are a group of caverns where the fledgling communist revolutionaries hid out during the 1960's, while the US was bombing the beejeeves out of eastern Laos and western Vietnam to try and dismantle the Ho Chi Minh Trail network. Apparently, the caves are in pretty good condition, still aren't very popular with tourists (read: not crowded and dirty), and overall constitute a fairly high "cool factor" (I'd give them a 9; I'll let you know if it's a letdown). As a whole, I expect Vietnam to have quite a bit of war history fodder to chew on, so I'm pretty pumped about that.

Other than the basic observations that I just made about it being awesome and laid-back, I'm going to leave my general analysis of Laos until later, as I'm sure I'll have more to say in a week or so. One topic I can touch on now, however, is that of the country's famed national beer, "Beerlao." This brew, which is highly-touted throughout SE Asia, is overall a pretty decent quality chug - far better, in my opinion, than anything that Thailand has to offer. Even more notable than it's quality, however, is the overall influence that it has in this society as a whole. It's popularity amongst the locals is understandable - you can pick up a 660 mL bottle for as low as 10 000 kip (approx. $1.20), bringing a whole new meaning to "buck a beer" (660 mL bottle!!!). It also has great economic significance; I was reading the national English rag "The Vientiane Times" yesterday afternoon, and on the front page there was an article highlighting the mid-year government budget report, in which overall gov't revenues after 6 months were pegged at about 3.4 trillion kip. A couple pages later was an article on the Beerlao brewery (a state-owned industry), which highlighted that with annual revenues of around 500 billion kip, the brewery constituted a "considerable source of income for the government." I'll say! If you assume from the first figure that yearly revenue is around 6.8 trillion kip, that means that the booze accounts for more than 7% of total government revenue! That's probably more than the CRTC makes off of the Red Green Show!

Wow, that was a somewhat more lengthy analysis than I originally intended. Pretty interesting insight, though. Maybe the Canadian government should consider nationalizing Molson and Labatt, in order to get more cash so it can subsidize crappy "national identity" television even more (baaaaammmmm!!!) I realize the fact that I just insulted the Red Green Show probably just cut my readership in half; however, sometimes the truth just needs to be stated.

Anyways, I'm going to go - to be honest, I didn't really want to spend the time writing this blog initially, as I've been on the computer for hours in the last couple days completing applications for internships funded by the federal government (oh, the irony!). But I really thought I should get at least one blog in while I'm in Laos, and since I highly doubt the Pathet Lao's 1960's-era Local Area Network will still be functioning in the caves, this is probably my last chance to be "wired". More once I reach Hanoi.

Cheers
Tom