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Laos
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eclectic



Joined: 09 Nov 2006
Posts: 1122

PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 9:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Molson you suffer from faulty inductive reasoning. Show me where I said that "all Korean students are brats". Any brats I referred to were clearly, CLEARLY specifically referring to MY PERSONAL AND SINGULAR situation. How in God's name can you take that and accuse someone of saying "all ...students are brats"?

I think you should get off your Moral High Horse, and preach to someone else.

You also quipped : "I'll be looking to see if you post on here about how crappy your experience was in Laos".

Yeah, Molson, why don't you make my day and keep a watch out for what I say about my Laos experience, if and when I ever move there! Rolling Eyes
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sigmoid



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 1276

PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laos is a nice change of pace from most places, first off though when talking about teaching in Laos we're talking about teaching in "Vientiane" [Viang Chan] as 95% of teaching jobs are there.

Living in Viang Chan isn't bad, but there just aren't that many schools and then there are even fewer good ones. Most are under-maintained, under-resourced and poorly managed.

In my opinion it's not particularly cheap [Rent & Food] as the staff of numerous NGO's [over one hundred] have pushed prices up and of course everything in Laos is imported as they produce little more than silk, coffee, tea and other agricultural products and Beer Lao [good stuff!].

So, you can try it but you might not get enough work and the rates are only about $10 - 12/hr.

And the internet is also expensive and slow.
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eclectic



Joined: 09 Nov 2006
Posts: 1122

PostPosted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

that si a more realistic thing--I had my doubts.
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Steph44



Joined: 27 Jun 2004
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:52 pm    Post subject: Working in Laos Reply with quote

I also had a great experience working in Laos, but it's not for everyone. It's been about 4 years since I lived there, but I know you could rent a place for $100-150 at that time. I made about $1200 a month, but I had an administrative position plus I worked a few evenings a week. I was able to save quite a bit, though I can't remember any exact numbers now.

The best thing about Laos is the people. If you like a laidback lifestyle, and I do, it's great for that too. I spent many an evening watching the sun set by the river, beer in hand. If you need a place with a good nightlife, I can't recommend it. The weather is also a problem for some people though I generally didn't mind. My big problem was that I found it difficult to stay healthy after awhile so after two years I left....I still miss it.

For the most part the foreigners I met there loved it but I can see that it's not for everyone.
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Tainan



Joined: 01 Apr 2009
Posts: 120

PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What made it hard to stay healthy?
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celtica



Joined: 29 Jun 2008
Posts: 137

PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

how about the long term effects of agent orange on the food chain????

excerpts from a couple of web pages....

The 1962 Geneva Accords proclaimed Laos a neutral country and forbade outside military involvement there. As the war in Vietnam escalated, however, neither the US nor North Vietnam was able to resist intervening. Local Laotian revolutionaries and their Vietnamese allies built a network of paths along the border, later termed the �Ho Chi Minh Trail,� and covert US operations used every means available to try to stop them. One of the earliest of these efforts, Operation Tiger Hound, began in November 1965 and set out to �combine in one program [all] the air tactics and techniques developed thus far in Laos and South Vietnam.�[1]

Among these methods was �defoliating jungle growth along selected routes,� using herbicides such as Agent Orange �to improve visibility.�[2] Already being sprayed in South Vietnam, herbicides had a military purpose of clearing land around roads and trails so that enemy movements could be detected and stopped. The environmental and human consequences never entered the calculation; nor, with few exceptions, did the international legality of spraying ever trouble American leaders. By far the greater concern was preservation of secrecy, in case evidence of chemical use might be turned to Communist propaganda advantage.

The primary tactic in the �secret war� was bombing, which caused immense damage in almost every province of Laos. The use of herbicides, a sideshow to a sideshow, was reported on during the conflict but officially denied until 1982, when Air Force historian William Buckingham�s draft of the Operation Ranch Hand study was made public under a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Veterans Task Force on Agent Orange. In a subsequent New York Times interview, former US Ambassador William Sullivan said that �secret� was not the right word to describe the herbicide program: �Rather, it was not admitted or confirmed.�[3]


Air Force spraying was heaviest during the first half of 1966, with more than 200 sorties spraying approximately 200,000 gallons of Agent Orange.[6] Spraying continued at a relatively rapid rate until February 1967, when with the exception of one mission listed in May 1967 it ceased until November 1968. Buckingham�s Ranch Hand study lists a condensed version of spraying over the same period, totaling 419,850 gallons over 163,066 acres.[7] Agent Orange was the primary herbicide used (about 75%), followed by Agents Blue (15%) and White (10%).

www.ffrd.org/indochina/laosao.htm

Agent Orange contains tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, called 2,3,7,8-
TCDD because of its molecular structure. Dioxins consist of 2 benzene
rings, 2 molecules of oxygen and 2 molecules of chlorine, fluorine or
bromine (4 for the most toxic variety).
TCDD is the most powerful poison known � a million times more toxic
than the most potent natural poison � and also the most long lasting.
FOOD CHAIN
In the food chain it is found in large quantities in animal fats, meat,
milk, eggs and fish.
Scientists have created a unit called the TEQ, short for Toxic
Equivalence, in order to fix the toxicity limit for foodstuffs. In France ,
the permitted dose per kilo of body weight per person per day is from
1 to 4 picograms a day.
In the USA the permitted dose is much smaller, at 0.0064 picograms it
is 160 times less than the French norm.
In Vietnam , the dose can reach 900 picograms per kilo of body weight
per person per day.

www.vvanz.com/ReportsPDF/VVNZ-AO-006.pdf
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Steph44



Joined: 27 Jun 2004
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 1:53 pm    Post subject: Health In Laos Reply with quote

Disentery(and a host of other stomache problems), malaria, dengue fever...These are all very real problems in Laos. Most foreigners go to the hospital in Thailand because the hospitals in Laos are pretty bad (at least they were back then, maybe they've improved). For a year I was healthy, but the second year I started having some problems and although they weren't big, they became more and more frequent and I got tired of feeling ill.
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eclectic



Joined: 09 Nov 2006
Posts: 1122

PostPosted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

well that certainly isnt very encouraging, is it, R.?
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jahson4



Joined: 20 May 2009
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Friendoken, you make Laos sound like Shangri-la. If I keep reading your posts, I'll end up wanting to hop over after I finish my contract in Korea, lol.
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BigGuy



Joined: 17 Sep 2007
Posts: 34

PostPosted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Friendoken needs to call his office--

$150 for a nice apartment?? $2 for a top notch meal??? Where?

Maybe after serving so many pretzels and Pepsis on those long trans Canadian flights, it all gets a bit blurry?
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MrMrLuckyKhan



Joined: 08 Feb 2008
Posts: 282
Location: Kingdom of Cambodia

PostPosted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

BigGuy wrote:
Friendoken needs to call his office--

$150 for a nice apartment?? $2 for a top notch meal??? Where?

Maybe after serving so many pretzels and Pepsis on those long trans Canadian flights, it all gets a bit blurry?


HaHa, it just seems that cheap after leaving Cananda....
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goiter



Joined: 28 Aug 2009
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 3:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you came over in February could you still get a job, or would all the places be full by then?
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roywebcafe



Joined: 13 Jan 2006
Posts: 259

PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:53 pm    Post subject: money and ATMS Reply with quote

I used to teach in Kalasin close to the Laos border, well a few hours to Nong Khai anyway and spent 15 days in Laos. The geology and terrain is wonderful. The capital is only the size of Kalasin. Small by capital city standards and more expensive than rest of Laos but still very cheap.

Be WARNED however there are no ATM machines outside Vientiane the capital and even then they would not take my Krung thai debit card. The banking computer systems are not very reliable there and i had to go all the way back to Thailand just to get some cash!!

I actually had to budget in Laos and i had plenty of cash but could not access it!! Really annoying

This was back in October 2005 so things may have changed a little since then?? Please inform me if they have?
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Quatermass



Joined: 04 Aug 2009
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm in Vang Vieng at the moment and that has an ATM!

I'm travelling at the moment, seeing which SE Asian country suits me best, and I don't think it's going to be Laos. After Thailand, I'm surprised how expensive it is. And the internet isn't up to scratch either.
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Mr. English



Joined: 25 Nov 2009
Posts: 298
Location: Nakuru, Kenya

PostPosted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:36 am    Post subject: cost of living in Laos Reply with quote

I have read several posts that say that Laos is expensive, or more expensive than Thailand. I spent about two weeks in Thailand, first Bangkok and then Chiang Mai, in late December/early January 2006-7, and then three weeks in Laos in January 2007, two weeks in Vientiane and the other week around a little. Luang Prabang, where I stayed a few days, was expensive, but otherwise I found Laos to be cheaper than Thailand. I stayed in a nice hotel in Vientiane for $12 U.S. a night, less than I had paid in Thailand, and though I don't remember the exact prices any more I do remember noticing that the price of a massage dropped noticeably after I crossed into Laos. Have things changed since early 2007?
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