housing. As we wandered around the streets going from guesthouse to guesthouse, we bumped into our friend, Veronique, who we met in Lago Atitlan, Guatemala, back in March. Small world! It was her last day in Vientiane so we spent the afternoon with her before she boarded a 25-hour bus bound for Vietnam. Yikes! Later in the day we hit an ATM that allowed us to take out 2 million kip! Woo hoo! We were millionaires! Didn't matter that it was only a few days budget, we felt rich! Let the birthday celebrations continue...
Checked into
the lovely Lao Heritage Hotel then spent a week indulging in international cuisine we had been missing... French (steak au poivre, prime rib), Vietnamese (bbq meatballs), Indian (veggies with naan), Chinese (dumplings), Italian (thin-crust pizza) and American (bbq ribs that had us licking our fingers). We also sampled high-end Lao food at Makphet, and street food at both the morning market and the night market. And breakfast was always yummy and filling at our favorite noodle shop where they serve a heaping bowl of sticky noodle soup for 5,000 kip (63 cents). Felt like I gained another 20 lbs!
We also sampled some of the nightlife, but being that Laos has a midnight curfew
when businesses must shut down, it was all pretty tame. We often found ourselves the only patrons at the bars we walked into. At first we thought we were too early or maybe too early in the week, but it was like that on a Saturday night too. We went out to On The Rock, a live music venue where we had fun chatting with the owner and his friend, but when the band started up with Bee Gees cover tunes, we felt the need to move on. Headed to the cabaret club at the Anou Hotel where we danced with restraint, as everyone else did, to popular Lao tunes... watching was more fun than the dancing
Sightseeing was tough because it was soooo hot! But when we did get up the energy, we visited Patuxay, the Lao version of the Parisian Arc de Triomphe. The US donated the cement for an airport runway, but they decided an arc was a better idea. The Pha That Luang, Vientiane's most importan
t monument, is a giant golden stupa which supposedly houses the Buddha's breastbone. It is quite the sight from a distance to see a shimmering golden monument on the horizon. But up close, it was a bit rundown and unimpressive. More impressive were the beautiful wats surrounding it. Then there was the Buddha Park, which was built by a man who tried to meld a variety of religions and the result is a collection of strange and kooky, but very cool looking statues.
All in all, we had a good week in Vientiane, but we both agreed it is the strangest capital we've been in. It seemed more like a small town than a capital city, where everyone is laid back and not much goes on. So onwards and upwards...
Erik: Yes, Vientiane is a strange, strange city. It feels very provincial for a nation's capital, and with a slow, lazy pace of life. We did see a few hummers driving around, so there are definitely some fat cats around, but for the most part it seemed that we were in a mid-size town rather than a capital city. T and I would go running (ok, “jogging”) in the morning in t
he Laos National Stadium, which was tiny and crumbling – more like a high school football stadium in the mid-west rather than a national soccer arena. Vientiane will be hosting the South East Asia (SEA) games later in the year, so workers were sprucing up the arena a bit, but hopefully no more than a few hundred spectators will show up, as the stadium can't hold much more than that.
It was very nice being able to choose from such a variety of food. After a couple of months of eating nothing but rice and noodles, we pigged out on everything we could get our hands on, though the breakfast noodle soup was still a staple for us. The heat was really unbearable, and we would only venture out for a few hours each day before running back to our lush AC room. T's birthday was a great excuse for us to spoil ourselves a little.
Our photos of Vientiane...
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| Vientiane, Laos |
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