My Wonderful Life

The first impression about Laos was … quite. Vientiane is quite small city, you can see the difference with Bangkok-Khao San Road which is very well-known as backpackers place. I remember when we finally arrived at Vientiane, there was a ceremony held at Lao National Culture Hall, which is near to where we stay, One-In Hotel. The tour guide we met at the hotel said maybe there was graduation ceremony. There were full of the people who sold the flowers and dolls in pinkish theme. He asked where we came from, and we said we are Indonesian. It’s very rare for Indonesian tourist come to Laos, he said. We just laughed and yes it is.

We thought Laos is one of the best destinations for people who want to relax, to get away from their routines for a while. Lao people are humble and nice. They like fresh vegetables very much, the papaya salad is their signature and you can find it in every restaurant or café there. We saw they eat fresh vegetables with the sauce while we had lunch the Tilapia fish near That Dam Stupa. Lao food is very spicy and full of leaves; I don’t know the name of the leaves they used but the smell is very strong.
In Laos you will find the baguette is everywhere, as Laos have had under the French colonials for years. So that’s why you also will find many French food restaurants at every corner in the city, and they used the French as the second language. But still, you will find the smelly leaves inside the baguette, unless you requested to fill the baguette with CHEESE ONLY.

The distance from one statue to another can be reach by foot, or you can hire tuk-tuk for one or a half day, the cost is 150.000 kip depends on how much you can bargain with the driver. One of the most important things you need to bring is map and make sure that you have enough mineral water. How fool I was as I tried so hard to read the map correctly. So, learn how to read the map before you go traveling, especially if you go backpacking, otherwise you will get lost.

Nights in Vientiane were not much to see and more quite than the day. We just had dinner, enjoyed the very big chicken barbeque (it was like Turkey) and Beer Lao (its Lao local beer)
There’s a funny thing when we walked back into the hotel on the 3rd day in Vientiane, we met a foreign tourist who greet us “Sabaidee”. “Sabaidee” means “Hello” in Lao. Maybe she thought we are local people, because our face is like them.