Laotian love

AS I SIT in front of the computer in a small internet cafe in Vientiane, it would be easy to forget exactly where I am. Standard qwerty keyboard? Check. Relatively high speed internet? Check. Air conditioning? Check.

Laos women for sale, not more than 100m from where I sit? Check. And that is when the realities of Laos hit home with a vengeance.

Ask yourself this? How many times has the topic of Laos come up in your (as a TT reader, undoubtedly endless) conversations on world politics? If your answer was anything more than zero, I am very surprised. Did you, for example, know that the Laos People’s Democratic Republic is — quite ironically, considering its name — a communist state without free elections or a free press? Or that its gdp was considerably less than that of Rwanda? Or that there are countless thousands of UXOs (unexploded ordinances) left scarcely buried from when the US bombed the hell out of the country during the Vietnam War?

I sure didn’t.

South-East Asia receives quite a bit of coverage in the worldwide media — with topics like Thailand’s prostitution problems, Burma/Myanmar’s un-democratic regime and Cambodia’s land mine and illegal logging (yes, it does happen outside of Tasmania). But Laos seems to be forgotten about and seems doomed to require a natural disaster or large-scale civil war to register a blip on the international media’s radar.

But back to the women for sale. I travelled by tuk-tuk (small three wheeled motor bike with a bench seat on the back) to the market today after carefully picking a driver: 1) that did not overcharge a farang (foreigner) like me and 2) that didn’t just want to take me to the nearest brothel. Kip seemed like a nice sort of a bloke so off we went, tearing down the bumpy, dusty streets.

After a nice stroll though the chaotic exhibition of exotic foods (read: live chickens, spiders, frogs, cicadas, roast dog etc.) at the market, I headed back to my guesthouse next to the Mekong. Sitting down for a cigarette with Kip, we both tried to make conversation with each other with our respective pidgin English and Laos. After some interesting conversation, he got a serious look on his face and asked if I would like to see some ladies. I told him that, no I didn’t want any ladies and that
I had a beautiful girlfriend back in Australia. But Kip pressed on, pushing me, insisting that I at least go and see the ladies for sale — he told me that he could get me a very good price. Using some strong Australian vocabulary I asked Kip to leave, but not before he told me I could get any ‘lady’ I wanted for a price of $US30 per month.

Personal sex slave

Where is 60 Minutes, or any other media outlet for that matter? I performed a quick internet search about the Laos ‘women for sale’ issue and found a number of NGOs that have obviously identified this large scale problem in Laos and are starting to undergo research and field work to work out strategies on how to further prevent the sale of women. It is hard not to think about what the men do with the women that they pay for — this is not paying a prostitute a certain amount for a night of ‘fake love’, this is buying a personal sex-slave.

The Laotian people are incredibly friendly and are always quick to smile and share a joke with you as you meander your way through their sleepy, pretty little country. Tourism is picking up considerably and that increase in travellers may actually be encouraging the sex-slave industry. There are more paedophiles (most are foreigners) found in this part of the world than any other region, and the ladies for sale (I was assured by Kip) could be ‘older, or very young’ depending on my taste.

I will be here for a few more weeks, planning to put as much money into the local economy as possible, but in a country where the public officials are elected by their friends — rather than their people — it is difficult seeing much of my money making it to the people that really need it. As the government-run Vientiane Times told me in several of its stories today, however, Laos is one of the most ecologically friendly places on Earth, has little drug problems, has completely cleaned up prostitution and sex slavery and is on the way to making the developing country a world leader.

Yeah, right.

I know that this is just another small rant about one of the dozens of developing countries that need help. But if you make it as far as Thailand on your holidays, as many Australians seem to be doing, make the 12 hour bus to Laos and see the country for youself. The food is good, the beer is cheap, the people are lovely, the scenery spectacular and there are ladies for sale, starting at $US30 per month.

When you get home, start talking about it.