Give me your opinions here guys.

Any country but Laos. I would put Thailand in there as well as a poorer country than Laos.

Laos only has a small population compared to those countries so it's not as bad in Laos. A lot of Laotians left the country 30 or 40 years ago, and is supporting relatives back home.

I'm not saying that Laos isn't poor, but the poor find ways to survive. Everyone will have their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.

Lao people always seem to have food, though most get it from nature and not supermarkets.

Why do you think Thai is impoverished? I've never seen any hungry Thais before. They eat good.

There's always something that Lao people need to buy at the supermarkets, even the poor have their own outdoor markets nearby their village.

Thailand has a population of nearly 70 million people in a country with a small land area, so there are a lot of struggling families. When Thai families have kids, they can have up to 10 kids. When they are poor, they are much poorer than the poor people in Laos.

Two weeks ago, I went to a wedding and I saw a group of Thai people who also attended. They looked like they came from the countryside of Thailand. Lao people were dressed formally for the occasion, while the Thais dressed casually in t-shirts, and it seems like they have never been to a formal wedding. This was a Hi-So wedding, and not some rural style wedding on a dirt ground.

Anyway not only did they dress unusual for such a high class wedding but they were the only guests who ate all the food on the table, there was nothing on their plates and bowls, all cleaned out. They were the odd ones out because guests at other tables still had food left over.

I'm not trying to look down on poor Thais, but they seemed pretty hungry and probably came to Vientiane on an empty stomach. They look poor from the countryside and I have some photos of them, which I might post later when I'm not busy.

That is strange because I have lived in Thailand for years and all the kids are on smartphones and none of them seem to be poor. Maybe the area I lived was just not a poor area.

In Laos you can see young kids walking around wearing ripped and tattered sinh begging for money.

I've never seen any Thai kids begging for money in Thailand before only amputees and handicapped people.

At the village I lived in 95% of the kids went on to Matayom education.

In Laos I know young girls who dropped out of school after 2nd grade.

Thailand also has a high literacy rate, and pretty much everyone can read except for some boys I know from rural Isaan who dropped out in the 5th grade and can't even read the alphabet.

Like I said, Thailand has 70 million people. I'm pretty certain you haven't seen all of them.

Some young kids in the countryside of Laos wear ripped clothing, but the bottom line is they are still wearing clothing and they have clothing at home, and not walking around naked like Africans.

Actually I have seen some tribal women in Laos walking around without their tops and you can see their saggy breasts because they don't wear bras. These women were only around 20-30 years of age. They have some pictures on a Lao calendar for 2014 if you've ever seen it.

I don't know a whole lot about Africa but most Africans I've seen have clothing except for the nomadic hunters and gatherers which make up a fraction of the population.

I guess I have seen lots of shanty towns in Thailand near the train tracks but I was never sure if they were Thai or just Burmese immigrants.

I know some areas of Thailand have no electricity as well, even in Central Thailand with ethnic Thais.

One thing I have never seen in my life is a young Thai person wearing sinh. Only old people. I see young Lao, Khmer and Burmese wear it all the time.

We don't consider tribal women in Laos as Laotians. That's why we call them Hmong, Meo, Yao, Tai Dum, or whatever they are called.

Thais don't wear sinh because it's not their traditional outfit. They have what is called a "sarong" which is their version of a sinh, and they only wear during special occasions.

Thais don't dress in their traditional outfit to school or work, opting for something a bit more sexy to attract men.

The sarong is worn by people all over arabia, africa and India too. It is less fitted than the sinh and looks less formal. Sometimes people in Laos use the terms interchangeably but people in rural areas usually wear sarongs and not just sinh. In Burma it's called the longyi and it's still commom for men and women to wear. Sometimes I see my grandfather wearing sarongs.

Sometimes Thais do wear sinh at ceremonies.

Years ago, here in China, we always left  food on plates for reasons I still dont know. Now, we just clean them all still for reasons I dont know.

;D

"Never judged a book by it cover" you are also compared apple with orage. These people are came from a rural  essan area. You can't compare them to you, who from a capital city of Laos.

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 27^th Mar, 2015 at 5:08am:

Like I said, Thailand has 70 million people. I'm pretty certain you haven't seen all of them. Some young kids in the countryside of Laos wear ripped clothing, but the bottom line is they are still wearing clothing and they have clothing at home, and not walking around naked like Africans.

Tee wrote on 21^st Apr, 2015 at 2:08pm:

"Never judged a book by it cover" you are also compared apple with orage. These people are came from a rural  essan area. You can't compare them to you, who from a capital city of Laos.

I'm talking about the majority. Isaan is Thailand's largest area where most people are living and therefore represent the real Thais.

The snobby Thai celebrities and the rich in the cities on television every day is a far cry from most Thais who are poor.

I'm not sure if most Thais are poor Admin.

I think even the rural Thais have more money than some Lao people in the cities.

When I was living in Isaan everyone had a motorbike and they could afford to buy gas, and they all had access to electricity and cellphones. All the kids were on smartphones, and many of the parents had Kubota tractors that they had bought.

How many families in Laos do you see driving Kubota tractors to the field? Do any rural Lao people still use buffaloes to plow the field?

Now even people in the country of Thailand are snobby. I know some Isaan girls who use Facebook and they won't go out in the sunlight because they're afraid of getting a tan. "Yan dum."

I am glad that the Lao government doesn't build schools in a lot of the rural areas and doesn't help people because when people get money, a lot of times they just turn into disgraces.

The reason most western tourists come to Laos is because they want to see poor people living in villages, admit it. Same with Cambodia and Myanmar. If there were no more poor people living in villages no one would want to come to Laos because that is the main attraction for people living in western societies where everyone is equal.

The main reason tourists go to Thailand is to have crazy sex that they can't get at home because of feminism. Admit it.

I'm not from the rural area so I don't see people working the fields. From my understanding, the fields in Thailand are much bigger to feed their growing population, and to sell internationally, so they need more resources like a tractor to help do the job.

Thais are snobs, especially those in the city. Using Facebook or not going out in the sun has got nothing to do with it, it's their personality that bothers many Laotians.

There are more tourists enjoying themselves in cities like Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng, than those roaming out to rural areas to see poor people. Tourists don't care if the locals are rich or poor, it's all about the entertainment and the sightseeing.

[I am glad that the Lao government doesn't build schools in a lot of the rural areas and doesn't help people because when people get money, a lot of times they just turn into disgraces.]

what is your mindset? They dont want to build schools in rural areas is because they want to rule the other as they do now. People with knowledge, good or bad, can see through things. People with knowledge can not be easilly fooled.

Again admin that is not true.

There is a huge market in Laos, Thailand and Myanmar for trekkers and tourists who want to see "original village and tribal life."

Guides take tourists hiking into "traditional villages" where they can see undisturbed local ways of life that are impossible to find in places like England and America where these tourists come from.

It is especially big in Luang Namta with the Akha tribe and western tourists.

To peterpan: My point of view on this is that education sure is important and as the years go by it is getting harder and harder to live without education. If you don't have it you will basically be a slave. The people I'm talking about are subsistence farmers and they are too naive to deal with the outside world. When they get exposed to that subpar education they immediately implode and they will sell outfor a buck due to their naivete.

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 22^nd Apr, 2015 at 9:33am:

I'm not from the rural area so I don't see people working the fields. From my understanding, the fields in Thailand are much bigger to feed their growing population, and to sell internationally, so they need more resources like a tractor to help do the job. Thais are snobs, especially those in the city. Using Facebook or not going out in the sun has got nothing to do with it, it's their personality that bothers many Laotians. There are more tourists enjoying themselves in cities like Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng, than those roaming out to rural areas to see poor people. Tourists don't care if the locals are rich or poor, it's all about the entertainment and the sightseeing.

Most people travel to Laos for sightseeing which includes visiting beautiful rural areas and touring Luang Prabang for a few days. The beautiful scenery and historically laidback Lao people are what attract tourists to the country. The forests are starting to disappear and locals in tourist areas are increasingly becoming more unfriendly and jaded. Overall, the number of tourists who travel to Laos is dependent upon those who travel to Thailand. There is a correlation because Bangkok is the hub of the region and most people visit Laos only after stopping over in Thailand for awhile.

The prices in Thailand have been rising by the day and more and more are losing interest and choose to travel to other destinations. There has been an increase in Chinese and Russian tourists and the Chinese will frankly ruin wherever they visit because many Chinese litter and they are generally stingy travelers.

The growth rate for tourism in Thailand will probably reach its peak soon and plummet quickly. THere is also a huge real estate bubble in the PRC, which when it bursts, will have profound implications for Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. By extension, Lao will also have problems.

Once Laos loses its resources and once it loses scenery, it will also lose its primary ways of making money and the economy will start to unfold.

Also only a few people benefit from tourists visiting Vang Vieng and Vientiane. Tourists are not really beneficial to the average Vientiane resident and if anything drive up already expensive prices due to increased demmand and limited resources and infrastructure to supply that demand.

What can we Westerners do to help increase poverty in Southeast Asia and alleviate the problem of economic development among locals and also eliminate aspirations to become more than peasants?

We must hold a seminar at the ASEAN headquarters for further discussion.