In December 2001 I was travelling in Laos for the second time, this time in the southernmost part, around Paksé in Champasak province. I had entered the country via Chong Mek (Ubon) and wanted to go back to Thailand at Mukdahan, crossing the Mekhong River from Savannakhet. So at the end of my stay I had to go from Paksé to Savannakhet, that's a journey of about 270 km which can be accomplished in roughly 7 hours (the amazing slowness of land transport in Laos would also be an interesting topic but is not my main concern here)
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Anyway, this was only the beginning. As we were becoming acquainted and the girl was getting tired, she first nestled against me and laid her head upon my shoulder, then finally wanted to lay down and asked me if I was OK. So we ended up like some couple in love, or I don't know what I must have looked like. A little bit improper, at least. She had put her head in my lap, covered herself with a thin jacket and grabbed one of my hands. Fortunately not so many people were able to see us. The German guy in front of us found it rather funny. Now isn't this a kind of strange behaviour for a decent Asian girl? It just wasn’t clear to me what kind of person she really was. A prostitute? No, it didn't seem so likely. I was a bit confused, and actually I still don't know it as I am writing this story. At one point she had already told me that she would also stay in Savannakhet for the night and travel on the following day because the trip was too inconvenient if made in one leg. And she had also indicated that we could find us a hotel room together! But I wasn't sure if that would become reality. Things can change very quickly in SE Asia, and I didn't rely on that option. Like many times before, I just decided to wait and see what would happen.
But after we had finally reached Savannakhet and disembarked around sunset, Lantoum organized a tuk-tuk and asked the driver for a hotel in the mid-price category. Then she asked me if I wanted to come with her, and I agreed, still not sure if she really intended to share one room with me or not... This question was answered when we arrived at the hotel. The price for the two-bed room was 45,000 Kip, that is about 250 Baht, which she paid without hesitating and without seeming to be overly embarrassed to have a farang man in tow. Then again there was a strange moment when we entered the room and she was a bit uncertain for one second and asked herself aloud, "Why don't they have a room with separate beds?" – Whereupon I thought, "So what do you want then? Invite a stranger to stay in the same room, but not to sleep in the same bed with you?" And I still had no idea how this was going to end. I mean, I didn't expect her to have sex with me, but it had become more and more likely during the course of the day. And now she suddenly wanted to turn round? OK, it's no use to try and understand Asian women. Please don't get me wrong, I wasn't angry at her, just slightly confused.
Each of us showered, then we talked and she came up with something like "I want to take you to a Lao disco where you can meet many beautiful women." So it was getting even stranger and more confusing. What the hell was she trying to propose? To look for another woman (a prostitute?) and take her back to the hotel? How would that work? No, I wanted Lantoum herself, if any girl at all. And I wanted to eat something and then go to bed, not to a disco! Well, we went to have dinner in a nearby restaurant, then returned to the room. As both of us were quite tired, we finally ended up in bed. And yes, we ended up having sex. Don't ask me how, it was rather strange, like everything in this story. Anyway, suddenly she called out "number one!", got up and produced something from her bag. It turned out to be a giant box of Lao condoms (manufactured in Taiwan) – the famous "Number One" brand, advertised at every pharmacy. They come in packages of three, and this box had maybe 15 packages in it! Again I wondered what kind of person she was and what she was carrying this for.
So it's time for some speculation now: They must be educated in a slightly different way than Thai girls; they might have more of a self-consciousness due to the (somewhat) socialist order in Laos which might pay a bit more attention to the emancipation of women; they don't have to care about their reputation so much because of traditional reasons or because there are no??? – or not many – prostitutes in Laos (compare this to Thailand: in a country with so many bargirls and such a dubious reputation, it's really no wonder that all the "normal" girls try to behave even more decent in order not to be mistaken). And maybe what Lantoum did is an accepted (if not a "normal") behaviour for a Lao woman, but I don't know, maybe it's just an illusion...
Do u know the white people view point on prositute? They see this as a easy way to use asian women espicially thailand for just Sex fantasy and at the end you don't worth nothing but a sex animals. This is true in every Whites eyes on asian women and at the end they don't care about you or have no moral to do this because asian women are known to be easy and cheap! When I see young asian women prosituting I feel like I don't want to be Asian anymore and feel that asian in general have no faith no purpose but to serve white for sexs. Pretty much Asian is just a living sex dolls to those foreigners.
