Cough, cough “These taste like sh**.” That’s what one of the two Dutch boys said on our first night in Laos. He’d just taken a puff of his newly purchased local cigarettes and clearly didn’t approve. He ended up snuffing it out and bumming a Camel off the French guy in the group.
As a non-smoker, I can’t attest to the quality of the local cigarettes, but if the number of Marlboro and Camel boxes at the local stores are any indicator, I’d say the foreigners (and maybe even some of the locals) here definitely dig one of the South’s popular exports.
But, the most entertaining part of seeing the cigarette boxes in nearly every convenience store is the fact that the whole city/town of Luang Prabang is an UNESCO World Heritage site, which means smoking isn’t supposed to happen anywhere here, as signs on nearly every building remind people. But, as long as people here can get non-poop-flavored smokes, I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to smoke on the streets or in the outdoor restaurants.
