People are enamoured
with the West, its wealth and culture (ex. movies, music). However
there is a disdain for some of the negatives that come with developed
countries such as weakened family values, disease, prostitution,
and things of that sort.
View of foreigners
will also depend on one's experiences. Those that have had positive
experiences in their dealings with Americans will have glowing reports.
While in other instances it will not be so bright (for example, those especially affected by the war).
Some people
openly welcome foreigners and others are more standoffish or suspicious.
Typically you'll receive a lot of smiles and hellos than anything
negative. Because of the war, obviously there will be some negative
sentiment but on-the-whole this is generally very minimal. The Lao
public, Lao people in general, are very open and forgiving. Moreover,
most of the population is young and so most didn't experience the
war and most don't know much of the war except for what they've
heard or what was taught in school. In fact you rarely hear Americans
tell stories of any prejudice against them in Laos. Among the younger
ones you'll run into those eager to practice their English.
The most promising
medicine for malaria in Southeast Asia is atovaquone-proguanil (otherwise
known as Malarone). In studies using this medicine it had a cure
rate of 80%+. All others such as chloroquine, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine,
doxycycline, and mefloquine had high failure rates when tested in
Southeast Asia and/or specifically in Laos. Therefore they are considered
ineffective. For further reading go to the American National Center for Biotechnology
Information at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
Note: Malarone
is quite expensive as there is still no generic production of this
medicine.
