Vientiane, Laos – 18 to 22 February, 2007
It has been a while since we have put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) so let’s see what we can remember of the last six weeks or so.
We were up early in Hanoi as the taxi was scheduled to pick us up at 6:00 AM to head for the airport and our flight to Vientiane. All went as planned and we arrived in Vientiane in late morning. We didn’t have reservations so we picked a place out of the Lonely Planet guide that sounded OK, and told the taxi driver to take us there. The airport is close to town, so we were at the guesthouse in a short time only to find they were full. They suggested the guesthouse next door to them, and fortunately they had a room available. The only problem is that it was on the fourth floor, and there were no elevators in the building. J worked up a sweat getting the bags to the room.
Once settled, we headed out for our standard routine. Can you remember what it is after all this time? Yes, it’s our walkabout! The guesthouse was not far from the Mekong River, so we headed in that direction. One of the first things we noticed (as J was huffing our bags up four flights of stairs) was how much warmer than Hanoi the city was, and also the lack of traffic. It was almost a different world without having to dodge thousands of motorbikes to cross any road. It was a Sunday and many shops and offices were closed, but we later found the traffic was minimal even during the week days as well. One other thing that we noticed very quickly on our walk was that the storm and probably other sewers run along below the sidewalks and many of the concrete covers are missing or broken leaving large holes in the middle of the sidewalk. A lack of concentration here could lead to a nasty accident!
We arrived at the river in short time but were sweating from the walk and in need of some liquid refreshment. We found a restaurant on the edge of the Mekong, and decided to have lunch along with a beer. This was to be the first of our many Tom Yam soups and Beerlao. J had the Tom Yam which is a hot and sour soup with fish as the standard protein ingredient in Lao, but it is also made with chicken, pork, or prawns. D had a local dish that we can’t remember the name of, and we also shared a green papaya salad. J found the Tom Yam excellent, D wasn’t keen on her dish, and the papaya salad had a strong fishy aroma and taste. We were aware they used a lot of fish sauce in Lao, but hadn’t expected as much in the salad. The beer however was excellent and the price was right at about one dollar for a large bottle that was almost ¾ of a liter. There was one item on the menu that J wanted to try, but put off for another day. That was “Underground Singers” which is basically a plate of fried local crickets.
While sitting in the restaurant, we were surprised at how low the Mekong seemed to be. The river banks came close to the restaurant, but the current flow seemed like it was at least a half mile away across a stretch of sand. It made us aware of how much water must be flowing in the rainy season. After lunch we continued our walk along the river bank through a stretch of hawker food stalls, and checked out a couple of hotels as we thought about moving the next day. In the end everywhere else was either full or too expensive, and we didn’t want to carry our luggage down the four flights right away, so we decided to stay where we were.
The next day we decided to walk in the opposite direction along the river past the palace and hospital, then cut into town to find the local market. When we found the market and it was amazing. It seemed to be acres of stalls all under many tin roofs. You could find everything imaginable there from baby clothing to snake whiskey. Yes, there are actual pickled snakes in the bottom of the bottles. We wandered there for a while, but it seemed so hot under the roofs with very little breeze that we gave up without buying much other than some necessities such as toothpaste and an electronic bug zapper. This was more of a fact finding walk anyway, so we thought we would return.
The next day we continued our foot tour of the city and visited Patuxay, also called Victory Gate. This is similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but is four sided instead of two. The interesting story about it is that it was built in the late 1960s as a monument to Lao war dead with concrete donated by the U.S. that was supposed to be used to build a new airport. Hence its nickname of the “vertical runway”!
We had originally planned to spend only a couple of days in Vientiane, but it was so peaceful and laid back after Hanoi that we extended our stay. On our third full day in town we decided to get adventurous and catch a local bus to a place about an hour out of town called Xieng Khuan (Buddha Park). This is a private park created by a local spiritual figure and it contains many weird Buddha and Hindu cement sculptures including a huge reclining Buddha. The park was interesting, but the bus ride was the highlight of the trip. We boarded the bus at the main station which is adjacent to the market we had visited earlier. It was an old mid size bus that was packed full of people. Every mosquito in town must have picked that bus for feasting, as they seemed to be swarming in all directions. There was no air conditioning on the bus, so all windows were wide open. In fact, many of the frames didn’t even have windows in them, and those that did were usually cracked Plexiglas. The door was automatic, opening by inertia when the bus stopped, and closing when it started up.
The bus route went via the Friendship Bridge, one of the most popular border crossings to Thailand, and the roads were very good up to that point. After that however they were full of pot holes soon turned into a dirt track. By the time we hit the dirt, we were about the only passengers on the bus. We got off at the park, had a look around, then stood by the road to catch the bus for the return journey. That was much the same except when we got on there were only two other people on the bus. By the time we arrived back at the main station in Vientiane, we were completely covered in dust and grime, but happy for the experience. We then searched for dinner and retired to pack for our bus trip the next morning.
Next stop Vang Vieng, Laos.
