Banana Pancakes and the Children of Sticky Rice

Shai and Khao live in the small village of Muang Ngoi in Laos and have been friends since their childhood. They fish together, beat wood in the jungle and have learned to live in the wild nature. However, while Khao is happy and content in his family and working as a rice farmer, Shai, after spending some time in town, feels confined in the village. Khao feels his friend slip away. As a backpacker discovering the village, looking for the authentic original life and fascinated by the untouched nature and beauty of the country, at first hardly noticeable changes. The picturesque Buddhist festivals continue to be celebrated and the inhabitants follow the usual everyday business. But the arrival of money, the construction of accommodation for the tourists and new roads, where you could only be reached by adventurous boat trips, bring about a change which the backpackers themselves complain of when they see their original paradise threatened. Shai and Khao also react very differently to the new situation. The previously strongly spiritual life of the villagers, the traditional eastern values, meet a new system; the global capitalism. The search for the supposed prosperity and the pursuit of the connection to the modern world changes the formerly so remote village. Daan Veldhuizen shows, without taking sides, the impact of tourism.