Into TGL: Hanging Out In Laos

June 9, 2017

The Green Lion

So you’re thinking about experiencing a little somethin’ somethin’ special in Laos. Maybe you’re looking into a construction project, or you’re set on teaching English to kids. Perhaps you want to spend a week getting to know the culture and language. Great, but what to can you do in your spare time at our programs in Laos? How’s the vibe?

Let’s start off with a visual. You’ll get picked off from the airport in Vientiane and drive to your new home away from home. You’ll notice how much red sand swirles up everywhere as tuctucs drive past, as you start to understand why some people wear a mask in front of their mouth. Next to you is a dad driving a scooter with two toddlers clamped to his back and a baby on his left arm. The city quickly turns from bigger buildings to an endless street of side road stores with a few rare customers in it. In between wooden homes with metal roof plates and a curtain as a wall, you find an occasional house the size of a palace as a reminder of the divide between rich and poor. When you arrive at Keysone Restaurant 777, opposite a morning market, the driveway is lined with two big metal Buddha’s and a bunch of horse statues. You walk past the restaurant, not realizing you’ll be coming back here too often for their massive bottles of cheap beer. You might try to hug their new Labrador puppy, but that little heartbreaker will ignore you and run off. Beyond the kids playground and a year-round christmas tree made of silver plastic, you start seeing a few white buildings next to bamboo lounge areas. There ya go. You’ve arrived at your new home!

In earlier days, the location was set in the heart of Vientiane city. These days, they’re deliberately set up in a much more rural area, where there isn’t another tourist location in sight. Here, you’re not surrounded by cars, but by buffaloes and rice fields. Some kids hide between their parents’ legs in giggles when they see on the street. In my opinion, it’s been the best decision: you see so much more of how life actually works around here. The fact that nobody else speaks English, makes for a fun challenge. On my first day, I deliberately went out to the telephone store next door without someone to translate. Let’s see what happens if you point at your phone and try to use body language to decipher how much to pay for a tourist sim card. In the end, I just tossed a few bills on the counter and put my faith in the sales person. I didn’t get ripped off.

Most nights, you end up simply lounging with the other participants. Two badass nutjobs decided to build their own chess board out of leftover wood, plastic tubes and spray paint. If you’re feeling brave, you can try to beat the illustrious Lao brothers Micky and Ticky at a round of badminton. Micky is the country manager of TGL, always up for a chat, and Ticky is the coördinator with an infectious laugh. Trust me, these two will whoop your ass in badminton even if they’re holding back. Maybe you’ll have better luck in a round of volleyball, which can be played on the same gravel field at the back of the location.

If you want to find a quiet corner, that’s fine too. There’s a pretty decent book exchange for endless reading in several languages. The daily sunset over the lake isn’t shabby to stare at either. Take a bet if the sky is going to turn either pink, red or purple this evening. Or grey, if the villagers are burning trash over the next door ricefield.

As said, the location is set in the back of a restaurant. Don’t think of the restaurants you know back home. It’s not a closed-off area, but imagine a big open terrain with bamboo lounge areas everywhere. Their small store charges 10.000 Laotian Kip for a one-liter bottle of beer. Now let me repeat that slowly for you, in case you missed it. You can buy. One liter bottles. Of beer. For a quid. A buck. One euro and ten cent. Per liter. This deal came in good use when we used the bigger ‘bar’ area of TGL for a night of homemade karaoke. Micky hooked up a microphone to his laptop, and the night turned into enthusiastic dancing to the Backstreet boys and some Danish songs that nobody knew the lyrics to. Whoever wants to step it up a notch, can head to the big karaoke bar a mere ten-minute bike ride away. Granted, Lao subtitles provide a bigger challenge, but let’s see how far you’ll get. Don’t mind the fact that the locals will likely stare at you a bit.

The restaurant area comes with a few other benefits. Participants can use their waterbikes to paddle around the little lake free of charge. Besides formentioned puppy, you can see a fat pug walk around while puffing. It took me about three weeks and a dozen chicken legs until their shy third dog allowed me to pet her pretty face. If you’re not a dog or horse person, you can also try your luck with the talking bird in the back. Take a chair and try to teach it a few dirty words in your own language.

If you’re not an animal person in general, try killing off a few fish. One afternoon we decided to give fishing a go. Ticky was kind enough to dig up worms, since us girly-girls felt way too squeakish to touch those with our bare hands. Nobody had ever been fishing before, so we were quite pleased to end up with three miniscule fish in the end. They weren’t quite suitable for dinner, so we tossed all of them back in the lake, alive and relatively well. I succesfully avoided hooking other participants on the fishing rod. If you are better skilled than we, the lake actually contains (cat)fish up to 2 or 3 kilo’s.

Most participants head off to a weekend trip on friday afternoon. The illustrious river tubing in Vang Vieng make for a populair destination, especially for backpackers eager to try out the party scene. If you have more time, the six hour bus ride to Luang Prabang will be a highlight within Laos. The easiest weekend will be spent in the capital city of Vientiane. The public tuktuk, costing next to nothing, will take you into town in about fourty minutes. It’s an easy ride, with a high chance that you’ll sit opposite a local holding a rooster on his lap. One time, an older lady openly discussed our appearence with the other Lao people in the van, using body language to compliment us on the shape of our noses and our long eyelashes, pinching our different looking skin.

In the rare weekend that you don’t venture on a trip, some of the local staff decided to kill the two ducks that roamed the terrain. The ducks got skillfully plucked and gutted in the backcorner. With a few limes and spices, they made for an excellent barbecue dinner. I asked Micky, “Why are you killing both? That’s a lot of meat”. “Because the other one would be sad without it’s friend.” The rest of the weekend staying ‘home’, can be spend with biking around the long and wide street. There are small shops all around, a few temples or some quiet villages to explore on your pink bicycle. It’s mostly about people watching and taking in the different life. When feeling adventurous, there’s even a hiking spot or a local park that has elephants around on weekend day.

All in all, spending time in Laos will mostly be a calm experience with a lot of free time. It’s stress free and without many worries. The biggest concern you’ll have, is how to draw a realistic picture of a banana in preparation of teaching English.