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Published: September 23rd 2009
After ten days of job searching in Luang Prabang, I received an exciting lead from my friend Suzy, an Australian who moved here a year ago. Her friend Nam would be opening a Belgian Beer Bar and was looking for a bar manager. The bar would be open in the late afternoon and evenings only. Perfect, I thought, this job would allow me to continue my full daily cultural immersion in Lao life!
The next night, I went to the bar, which had been open a few months, with my guesthouse family. The brother-in-law of this family is Belgian, and knows Nam, the owner of the bar, who is also Belgian. I thought this affinity would help my application. Suzy had already mentioned me to Nam and so I introduced myself and we all had a few beers. I told Nam I was very interested in the position. He gave me some details about what he was looking for in a manager and I, when I could get a word in, assured him I was capable of all those things. He did not ask me many questions nor conduct any kind of “interview”. I left feeling that he was not very interested in me for the position but feeling myself very interested in the position. I steeled myself to continue visiting the bar daily until Nam liked me and wanted to hire me.
Well, either Nam was desperate or he liked me more than he showed, because it took only one more visit to secure a job offer. The job would be six evenings a week, 3:30 PM- 11:30 PM, and I would be expected to open the bar, run the bar , and close the bar. I’d bartended before and opened and closed restaurants before, so I felt I could handle that. My pay would be $300 a month, in USD, plus 5% of sales, and a daily $2.50 stipend for dinner. If customers wanted to stay late, I would be expected to keep the bar open as long as money was being made. My bosses, Nam and his business partner, Chris, would be responsible for securing my work permit and visa. I was in heaven and happily signed a contract.
I realized that as I would be working about 48 hours a week for about $100 a week, my pay worked out to roughly $2 an hour. Now, in the US I would never work a job for $2 an hour. But in Laos, I knew I was being paid a fortune. As a foreigner, I could barely live on $13 a day in Laos, I just didn’t have the skills, but I had plenty of inspiration around me to try, knowing most Lao were living on $2 a day. My rent was $6 a day, at the cheapest, good quality place possible. Meanwhile, most Lao live in homemade houses, 8 or 10 people living together. My meals were $1-$2 each, equaling about $5 a day. Meanwhile most Lao have one person who cooks, from ingredients from the market or the jungle, for many family members who gather to eat, at a cost of maybe $1, for a meal for 8. And then extraneous costs, for water, or ice cream, books or advil, beers, easily added up to that last $2. I’m not positive, but I believe most Lao people just don’t have access to these luxuries, whether they need them or just want them. So despite living as low-cost as I, an American, knew how, my low-cost living was luxury living compared to the average Lao low-cost living.
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sven
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nice article
Hey, I just found your article somehow on the internet, don't ask me how I got here but I'm glad I have found it. As I'm belgian to I really like this story! I've been to Laos 4 times now I think and was always thinking of trying to find a job there. Living on that low cost really makes life even more beautifull and makes you think about how good we western people have it in our own country. Ok, your article is about 2 years old now but I was just wondering if you're still hanging around there or (probably) moved on for another adventure. I haven't read any of you other post yet but will start doing that now. Good luck with it if you're still living there and I'll hope to find the same thing one day.