Vientiane, Laos

Have no idea who or what, just thought the billboard was interesting!

While in Vang Vieng we booked a minivan to take us south to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.  We were surprised (although we shouldn't have been) when a rickety old minibus arrived to pick us all up.  It was gutless, but made the trip nonetheless.  The trip took about four hours.  Luckily we weren't in the mountains anymore so there weren't any curvy roads to make people sick! 

Vientiane lies on the Mekong River, with Thailand on the other side.  The “Friendship Bridge” is nearby, spanning the Mekong and connecting Laos with Thailand – it is a popular border crossing area.  Built in 1994, it has helped stimulate trade between the two countries.  Historically, Vientiane has been invaded by the Burmese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Siamese (Thai).  In 1828 Siamese forces invaded the city and razed it to the ground, destroying every building except one wat.  The entire population was marched back to Thailand where they were resettled.  Vientiane was abandoned to the jungle, and was still in ruins when the French arrived four decades later.  Currently Vientiane’s population is over 200,000 – it is the largest city in Laos.   

Arc de Triomphe wannabe

We mostly kicked back while in the capital city.  We ran into lots of other travelers we had met earlier in Laos, some even from Thailand!  Everyone seems to be on the same route through the country, just going a different speed.  It was good to catch up with all of them.  Most of them told us there wasn’t much to do in the capital city, and after having spent four days there, we agree.  But we weren’t looking to “do” much, and really enjoyed hanging out at nice coffeeshops, eating pizza, and just taking it easy.  We saw a few sights: one wat, a cement arc (similar to the Arc de Triomphe in France), and the mall.  The mall was nothing special, although it did have an escalator.  We saw one rural Lao couple at the bottom of the escalator just marveling at it and watching people get on and off.  Eventually they got up the guts to ride it themselves, smiling the entire time.  It was very cute.  

We had a traditional Lao meal one evening when we tried their most famous dishes:  papaya salad and laap.  The papaya salad is made of shredded green papaya, garlic, lime juice, fish sauce, tomatoes, palm sugar, and chillis.  I could actually handle the fish sauce in this dish (I’ve since learned that there are various strengths of fish sauce; it’s the strong one that makes me want to gag every time I smell it!).  Laap is traditionally made with raw meat, but for us farangs (foreigners), they cook it.  It can be made from practically any meat, including fish, cut up into really small pieces.  It also contains small shallots, mint leaves, fish sauce, lime juice, roasted ground rice, and lots of chilies.  We ordered the dishes not so spicy so I could eat them; usually they are pretty darn hot.  Last but not least, we had sticky rice with our meal.  It comes out in a little bamboo container and you eat it with your hands, balling up a handful and dipping it in the various sauces of your meal.  I originally thought they did something to normal rice to make it sticky, but it’s actually a different type of rice.  I love sticky rice – the texture, taste, all of it!  It’s my new favorite.  Our entire meal was fabulous that night. 

Us on the groovy sleeper bus!

We decided we would head south from Vientiane to the town of Pakse, as there wasn’t much in between the two cities that we wanted to see.  The trip would take from 10-12 hours on a bus – yeesh!  Our only option was a sleeper bus that left at 8:30pm.  We’d never heard of a sleeper bus before, imagining that it must be like a regular bus but perhaps the seats reclined further.  Were we surprised!  It’s a double-decker bus with actual little beds in it, no seats at all.  And it comes with pillows and blankets!  The beds aren’t made for tall westerners – Daron wasn’t able to completely stretch out, although I could – and they’re cozy.  It would be fine for a couple or two friends who were close, but for two strangers it would be too close for comfort.  One girl on our bus had been put next to a male and was looking to change her bed to be with a female.  She ended up in the very back of the bus where there was a big bed for four people and slept next to the window, with a married couple next to her (the wife was on her side), and then a single man on the other end.  We actually slept really well, and enjoyed waking up early and watching the sights go by while we were all cozy under our blankets.  Not a bad way to travel!