While meandering through the streets of Pakse, Vientiane or other places in Laos, you can discover the historical connection to France. C’etait l’Indochine – Indochina. From the French-style baguette, to street signs, old buildings, bridges and ‘la vache qui rit’ – laughing cow with Lao-style ear rings (BeerLao!)
Even in the Lao language you can find a few words such as ‘mak phom’ (pomme in French) which though is slowly beeing replaced my ‘mak aepen’ for the English word apple. The historic French bridge in Pakse has recently been removed to make space to a new bridge currently under construction by Lao government.
Although things move slowly here, transformations do not stop. There was not only a French connection, there is a Russian and a Japanese bridge in Pakse and a Thai and Chinese further north and likely from other nations as well in other parts of the country. All signs of historical and more recent connections.
Happy weekend with a smile from the cow!
viafranziska.com 