Vientiane

I like Vientiane. It has a good feel to it. There are lots of restaurants to choose from, fortunately lots of guesthouses too. I don't think I can put my finger on what I like about it though. It has some nice Wats and some pretty architecture, also some not so pretty architecture. The river front is really pretty though. I think it's the overall atmosphere and vibe of the city. I definitely am enjoying this city. Unfortunately today Beau and I are both feeling a little under the weather so we haven't done too much exploring today. Hopefully we feel better tomorrow because we are on another bus to Vang Vieng.

Nov 30 – Onwards to Vientiane

We took a tuk tuk to the bus station this morning and caught the 8:30 bus to Vientiane. It was a bus ride like any other although one time we picked up some women who were selling fruit, rice and other things to eat and then we dropped them off about a km from where we picked them up. I forgot to mention about the circus that gets on the bus every time we stop. Women and children selling bags of sticky rice, mangoes, eggs in a bag, eggs on a stick, meat skewer, and something wrapped in a banana leaf. They all climb on the bus and yell in Lao and stick the stuff in your face trying to get you to buy it. Then they all clamber off the when the horn honks or in the case of today they do all this while the bus is moving. It is quite the production. Any ways we arrived in relatively good time around 3:30. Its about 330km between Tha Khet and Vientiane so I guess 7 hrs isn't too bad. We had to take another tuk tuk into town, actually it was a Sǎwngthǎew, a pickup with a covered bed and benches down both sides. There were about 18 of us in the back and a chicken. It was the typical Asian squish as many people as possible into a small space. This thing took us the 9km to the city center. From there we started hunting around for a room. There were a plethora of guesthouses and hotels but most were full or too expensive. So we just wandered up and down a couple of streets till we found one cheap enough that had a room. We were starving at this point so we went down to the street near the water and had a beer and some food. The water front area is very nice. There are no restaurants that directly over look the river but there is a nice park area and then a little hill up to a boardwalk area. The river is quite low right now, I'm a little surprised since dry season didn't start too long ago. Makes me wonder how low the river will get. We walked along the board walk and watched the sun finish setting. In one area of the park there was a large aerobics class going on. There was also a large night market just finishing setting up in the park selling clothes, bags, paintings etc. We wanted a little something more to eat so we headed to a restaurant near our hotel and ordered pizza. I had a craving. It was pretty good, could have done with more toppings but it was tasty. Sometimes it's nice to have a change from rice and rice noodles.

Dec 1 – Around Vientiane

After having a nice and cheap breakfast, complete with near American style coffee, I got to Skype with Mom and Dad. They are off on their own adventures in a little over a week. We chatted for a bit but the call was dropped a few times, the internet is pretty slow here. After finishing with Skype, Beau and I headed out on foot to explore the city. We were hunting for bookshops, Beau found he wanted something to read while we were on all those buses. We found quite a few some with new books some with used but in the end Beau found a book he wanted to read, he's not into fiction so it was a little difficult. We spent most of the day walking around enjoying the feel of Vientiane. Traffic is a little less crazy here and drivers actually stop to let you cross. We went into a market/mall. Once upon a time it was a market with covered stalls now it's a mall with stalls all inside. Kind of weird but interesting none the less. We had a late lunch at a burger stall which really good burgers, Yum! We are indulging our Western cravings lately. We went to the river side to watch the sun set. It was kind of hazy but there was a cloud just above the horizon and as the sunset behind it it peaked out the bottom for the cloud too. Very pretty. We went to a little sidewalk restaurant that set up in a construction zone and had some bbq squid and fried rice for dinner. After we enjoyed a beer at a restaurant called the “beer garden” which we had eaten at the night before. It actually had a very pretty garden you could enjoy beers in. While there a group of 3 came in, two of the people in the group we have seen everywhere. They were at a couple of the same restaurants in Tha Khet, on our bus to Vientiane, now they are actually stay in the same hotel as us. It is all quite random but we actually talked to them this time although we didn't get any names. I don't doubt if we continue to run into them while in Vientiane.

That Dam Monumment

Laos National Culture Hall

Another beautiful sunset over the Mekong