Land of Smiles or Land of Snarls

[PeteC]

For a young man though, there's always the lure of the untouched exotic place. Laos still fits into that category.

Bare breasted beauties washing waist length raven colored hair under a rain shower.

Look what happened to Paul Gauguin, Spencer Christian and so many others.

In their day places were numerous, not so now.

If I was 25 you'd find me in a hammock up there being fanned by aforementioned beauties and fed grapes while another was giving me an orgasmic foot massage.

Go for it you young guys before the 'Snarls' catch up with the place. You can always move on when they do. Pete

[Spitfire]

Agree with the general sentiment of the post Pete, but

If I was 25 you'd find me in a hammock up there being fanned by aforementioned beauties and fed grapes while another was giving me an orgasmic foot massage.

When was the last time you went there? That hasn't been possible for about 10 years in most parts of the north. The good old days eh?

It might still be possible, perhaps, but you'll have to go to Savanahkhet and then head east or southeast and then you might be in "trails less trodden" but then you're in the wild west/paranoid government official areas. They might even still require "provincial" access/approval stamps to visit, not sure if they still make it mandatory or not these days but visitors used to have to get them.

Funny!

[PeteC]

Actually I was describing how Thailand used to be, about 10 miles in any direction outside of Bangkok.

I was hoping some places in Laos outside of Vien Chang are still the same. A late friend who spent much of his adult life in Nong Khai said they were there, and a girl from Savanahkhet who lived near me in Hawaii said they were still there.

I hope they are. The fantasy followed up by the fact finding mission is what's fun! Pete

[shunpike]

I sympathise with you who live in town (HH), but it is a tourist town and the mercenary tone goes with all that. I have a house in suburban Bkk (Klong Samwa), far from the madding crowds of farangs (tourists and expats) near Sukhumvit and Silon/Satorn. Some friends who live downtown often become bitter, feeling themselves to be at the mercy of the locals who treat them as ATMs, and never see a smile the whole day long. I say that I (Clinton-like) feel their pain, why don't they get the hell out of downtown?? They always say 'no way bro, I'd miss the farang scene, the convenience, and the western food and entertainment'. Well, they've made their choice, enough with the kvetching already!

Where I am, out in the boonies, I'm sometimes frustrated by the lack of western "cultural infrastructure", but the locals are nice, plenty of real smiles, and the Thai-Chinese elderly girl who sells me my grog does so not only with a smile, but she takes a baht of the price per bottle because I'm a frequent flyer (imbiber?). She also gives me a wee gift every new year. I love little things like that.

[stgrhe]

I do not understand what you are trying to say shunpike. Are you saying that you sympathise with us farangs, who live here in Hua Hin, because the farangs who live in lower Sukhumvit in Bangkok feel that they are treated like ATM by the Thais? What has that to do with us here in Hua Hin?

G.

[shunpike]

I do not understand what you are trying to say shunpike. Are you saying that you sympathise with us farangs, who live here in Hua Hin, because the farangs who live in lower Sukhumvit in Bangkok feel that they are treated like ATM by the Thais? What has that to do with us here in Hua Hin?

Forgive my rambling...what I was trying to say is that much like those who choose to live in the tourist areas of Bkk, the folks who choose to live in HH town seem to have to make a trade off between the "falang cultural infrastructure (dining, shopping etc.)" and the snarls from the locals. In most tourist towns throughout the world the locals seem to be more jaded and mercenary than the locals outside the tourist areas. I sympathise in that some seem to be put off by their reception by the locals, but unfortunately this seems to go with the territory..