culture quiz: laos
by Rachael
Luang Prabang, Laos
Part One
YES or NO? In Laos, is it rude to:
- stare at someone when they eat?
- be noisy?
- read someone’s journal over their shoulder?
- hug an adult?
- hug a child?
- touch a monk?
- wear shoes inside?
- hoick on the pavement?
- stand above a monk?
- take drugs?
ANSWERS
- It would certainly appear not
- Yes – and when two ladies end up in a loud dispute at the market, a hush falls over the crowd and everyone watches the action
- Apparently not <wink>
- Absolutely.
One of the men down our alley pushed his wife past our all-female group with his hands on her shoulders. She blushed, all the women cried, “Bo dee” (no good), and he, with a cheeky grin, exclaimed, “Dee, dee, dee, dee lai” (good, good, good, very good) - You can pick them up, carry them off, hug them, kiss them, pat, prod and poke them! Smother them to your heart’s content.
- Rude if you’re a woman – in fact, don’t even touch his robes.
- Yes. You soon give up on wearing boots!
- Not at all – feel free!
- Just don’t do it, OK! Very disrespectful.
- Who knows if it’s rude? But it is certainly illegal. Accommodation Regulation number five, posted in every guesthouse, states: Do not any drugs, crambling or bring both women and men which is not your own husband or wife into the room for making love. (No, that wasn’t a typo above! It’s what it says!)
Just so you know they’re serious about it, number eleven says: If you do not follow this accommodation regulation, you will be fight based on Lao PDR law.
Part two
Multi-choice
- How many temples are there within 3km of our guesthouse?
a) 34 b) 5 c) 12 - What is the most common foreign language overheard on the street here?
a) French b) English c) Japanese - What do you eat with a spoon?
a) soup and plain rice b) only soup c) soup or icecream (if only!) - What is takeaway BBQ chicken wrapped in?
a) banana leaves b) gladwrap c) polystyrene box - Who do you greet when you are out?
a) absolutely everyone b) friends c) only shopkeepers - How many Santas are there in town?
a) one outside the French shop b) none c) one in every hotel - Who has long hair?
a) all Lao women and male German tourists b) married females c) schoolgirls - How much should a tuktuk ride cost?
a) 5,000 kip b) 50,000 kip c) 500,000kip - How much did our first tuktuk ride cost?
a) 660,000kip b) 66,000 kip c) 6,000kip - What do we eat every day here?
a) sticky rice and baguettes b) fried rice and noodles c) McDonalds
Answers and notes
All the answers are a). That makes it easy!
- Yes, there really are 34 temples. They are everywhere, and some of them over a thousand years old.
- There are bundles of French here, both from Europe and Canada. Consequently, when you see someone you don’t know what they speak and so even foreigners use the Lao greeting as their common language.
- Fingers are used for everything else – meat, fish, vegetables, sticky rice.
- OK, so it’s almost eco-friendly with those banana leaves – but then they put it in a plastic bag for you to carry home.
- Everyone greets everyone all the time. It is impossible to walk up the street without hearing “Sabaidee”.
- He’s a very skinny plastic Santa…..but without him, ER2 would be missing out on her own culture – when she first saw him, she cried out, “Superman” – the kids have now taught her “Santa Claus” 😉
- Those European men sure do like their facial hair too!
- 5,000 kip – that’s just over a New Zealand dollar.
- And we still haven’t quite go over the fact that we paid $15 to go 800 metres!
- In Thailand we ate fried noodles and rice every day, here it’s sticky rice and the best baguettes in the world. Not being McDonalds-frequenters, we really don’t miss those golden arches at all.
So how did you do?
Tags: dress, food, learning, money, postcard: Laos, price, tradition
rayres
Kia ora whanau
It is a wee while since I have been here because of the busyness of life back at Unitec but I’ve just done a wee bit of catching up on your travels. Notwithstanding maggots and V&D and 660,000 kip and other unmentionables, you all seem to be having a simply fabulous time and it doesn’t matter who remembers or doesn’t remember what. What matters is the here and now and not what might or might not be.
We have enough Santas over here for us and half the rest of the world and could do with giving a few away!
Safe traveling.
Love the quiz!Will take note of the tuk-tuk price. I have been trying to prepare the girls for the prodding and poking but I’m sure they won’t really get it until it’s done to them. A few weeks ago we went to a Thai restaurant for a birthday-thought it would be good practice. Charlotte(nearly 4) charmed them all with her attempts at “thank-you” and ‘Hello”. They were all over her and showering her with attention and lolliesetc. It was quite amusing when she said to us as we left, “those Chinese people are really quite annoying!” Oh dear, this was in New Lynn, imagine when she’s in Thailand!Lucky she’s the little extrovert in our family!