It won't happen on the same scale because Thailand will always have a proportionately greater number of tourists than Laos. Europeans generally seek beach spots in SE Asia because they want to forget how cold and dreary it is on their end of the Eurasian landmass.The government of Laos can and should take action to prevent rapid cultural diffusion as many elements of Western culture are problematic and contrary to contemporary Lao society.

A temple is a place of tradition. Wearing a short skirt and a skimpy top is disrespectful to the beautiful Buddhist tradition and offensive to the monks. Lao women should have dignity and dress conservatively. Otherwise they will end up like their Thai sisters and the nation will attract undesirables.

The almighty $$$ corrupt anything and everything.
As for being the moral police, shouldn't that be enforce
by property manager ? I agree with woman not wearing
short with their butt cheek hanging out at the temple.
When i was in Thailand they didn't even let the men go in
the temple wearing short.I'm just saying doesn't the goverment have better things to do ?

I agree with TexasCowboy but I think it's already too late to save Laos. Now even all the small towns in Thailand have KFC and McDonalds and stuff and everyone is on facebook starting from age 10, even in the rural villages.

Why I think Laos cannot be saved? A multitude of reasons. I had been to Laos about 10 years ago and nearly every single woman was wearing traditional Lao attire (Sinh) and now you rarely see any Lao women wear those except for the very impoverished tribal people and the ones that are forced to wear it because they work in a government job or something. No one wears it out of free will anymore, and if the government didn't force students and employees to wear Sinh then all Lao women would've stopped wearing it by now because they want to be westernized so bad.

In Vientiane no one listens to Luuk Tung anymore they all listen to f-cking rock music and English language pop. Again, the only people who enjoy traditional Lao/Thai music anymore are the impoverished tribal people and the poorest of the poor Lao people. Once they get a little bit of money, they stop listening to Lao music completely. What's wrong with this world?

You really think having money is more important than keeping your identity alive? If that's so then why not just sell your soul to Satan for some money. (That was just an expression I don't really believe in Satan and I'm not Christian but I hope you get my point.)

(Edit) Question for the admin, since you live in Vientiane and you may know, do you like Luuk Tung Lao musc? Do any of your friends like it? I'm guessing the answer is NO

Jazz and country music both originated in the United States. They are not traditional forms of music. Judy Garland was a Hollywood actress who undermined the moral fabric of American society. She does not embody traditional values.

The world certainly has changed. Western media and marketing has created a culture of entitlement, to the extent that psychologists are now concerned about a narcissism epidemic. The US might be an importer of goods but it is an exporter of culture. Our culture will poison the minds of the rest of the planet.

But not for long! In the next fifteen years, the real estate bubble in China will burst and what will inevitably follow is a global economic catastrophe. Add to this the decline of the prestige of the dollar and a dwindling supply of energy and we are now looking at a world with much less commerce & exchange. City dwellers in the next five decades will simply not have the resources to sustain their current lifestyle. Most national fiat currencies will collapse and these urban dwellers will find themselves unable to pay for the necessities of life.

I look forward to this future and only hope that farmers will refuse to feed, clothe, and shelther their hopeless urban counterpart. Their existence has been parasitical both to the farmers who they poorly compensate and steal from and to the planet which they have polluted.

I have a few things I want to address here. First of all, country music is still very popular in the United States, although Jazz would probably appeal to an older demographic of people. You know Taylor Swift, you know, one of the most popular artists of today? Well, her music is a blend of country and pop music. So admin's statement about country music being phased out in the U.S.A. is not true. Also in the Southern United States country music is still very popular among certain demographics. As for Jazz, I think older black people in the south/east coast still listen to it, and maybe some hipsters in NYC.

What makes you think Luuk Tung is some old outdated thing that should stopped being listened to because it's 2014? New Luuk Tung songs are still being made every day. Even in Thailand all the older people from the provinces still like listening to Luuk Tung, and most of the male teenagers/boys in the country like Luuk Tung. The only people in Thailand who don't like Luuk Tuung are the pseudo nu wave Hi-So tweenie bopper 12 year old airhead girls that screech whenever a handsome guy appears on their sh-tty Thai soap operas and the Hi-So Thai people who have a lot of money and status and see Luuk Tung as low-status redneck hillbilly music. It's not about the world changing, but about people changing due to social and economic divisions. In most east and southeast Asian countries, being "international" and speaking "Engrish" is seen as a high status thing, and so listening to Luuk Tung would detract from their "high status image" and make them "lose face." Westerners are not impressed when Asian people try to speak English in order to seem "civilized" and "upper-class." In fact, they feel the complete opposite. Most feel pretty appalled that so many "high-class Asians" have such low opinions of their own fellow countrymen.

Any educated American/other westerner understands the value of one's cultural heritage and respects the cultures of different countries around the world. That is why Americans enjoy going to visit countries that are not necessarily developed in terms of economics, but have a rich cultural heritage. The higher class Asians couldn't give a sh-t about these countries and just see them as underdeveloped wastelands. I have had Thai people tell me to my face that they will never go to Laos or Cambodia because they see these people as inferior and poor and those were their exact words.

It's not just Vientiane that has Hi-So people who think they have "progressed" beyond their fellow countrymen and are more "developed." I have also encountered them in Ta Khaek, Pak Se, and even in Savannakhet. I have been to almost every province in Laos and all the city dwellers share this common theme. I also encounter this in the cities in Thailand. Countryside Thais in Isan and Northern Thailand can be just as nice and sincere as Lao people but the problem with Thailand is only that globalization has taken a firmer grip on the nation and caused large scale social, political and economic divide and weakened the unity of the country.

As for why I get upset when I see KFC and McDonalds, I can answer that. It's not really the food they serve that upsets me it's just because of the fact that they serve as symbols that indicate the area is changing for the worst, and they are symbols that indicate further destruction of local culture. Basically when they build KFCs it's like putting up a sign saying "This area has been selected for American Imperialism, we will continue to strengthen our grip on this area."

In my opinion I think America is wholly responsible for the demise of Lao culture. If it wasn't for America's constant attacks on the Soviet Union then Laos would have had a trading partner and it's economy would never have collapsed, thus it would never have had to open up the country to the outside world.

Laos was closed off from the outside world up until the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Lao economy started to fail because the U.S. doesn't do business with Marxist states, so the only choice it had was to open its economy and get flooded with American trash culture.

So much for western culture invasion. So long money says, then, let money say.  Any culture has merits.

I think the property bubbles wont burst in China. It will just stay there.

And again , from every word above, I think we would be better if we are trained to be tarzan.

I also think farmers would sell their products to homeless city deweller in case of outflow to rural areas.

Last, if young like facebook or twitter or some social media tools, let them have. I like Jazz and Country too and rock althought I am a little too old. I respect traditon and also love icecream of KFC.

As for Thai girls, all Thai girls I know are very very very good. I should say much much much better than the girls from the place I live. Maybe the Cowboy knows it since he lived in China for some years. Humans are implanted with genes, character wont change even outside conditions change. But, I am not racist.  , I am Humanist. ha ha ha  .

The hunter-gatherer groups live in that kind of environment, so they adapt to them.

You are using the internet because you live in a different environment to them where there is more advanced technology. You wouldn't have had this kind of privilege many years ago because the world is changing and for the better.