Day 6 - A Lizard in my Adventure Sandal

It was the usual start to the day with the same breakfast at the same time. At 10.10am we boarded the scooter and cruised into the city centre. On the way we passed a traffic police checkpoint, Jackie ducked down and luckily they didn’t notice (or care) that she wasn’t wearing a helmet.

At 10.30am sharp and after turning the wrong way up a one way dual carriageway, we dropped the scooter back off at TL Motorbike For Rent and I retrieved my passport.

We then walked for over a mile along Rue Setthathirat to Wat Si Muang, apparently the most frequently visited grounds in Vientiane. Inside the main temple is a replica of the Emerald Buddha. I had a nosey inside, picking my way through the floor sitting locals receiving prayers from monks, whilst I surreptitiously snapped a couple of photos.

Legend has it that when the site for Wat Si Muang was selected in 1563, a large hole was dug to receive the heavy stone pillar that would become the city pillar. When the pillar arrived it was suspended over the hole with ropes.

Drums and gongs then sounded to summon the townspeople and everyone waited for a volunteer to jump into the hole as a sacrifice to the spirit. A pregnant woman named Sao Si leapt in and the ropes were released, killing her and in the process establishing the town guardianship.

As we were leaving, a Buddhist monk was blessing a brand new van that the owner had brought to the temple. The monk splashed holy water over the windscreen, lent into the driver’s seat to presumably say a prayer, beeped the horn several times then walked off without acknowledging the owner.

Outside the temple complex, a shop was selling small birds for visitors to buy and release for good luck. It wasn’t a pretty sight, because the birds were way too tightly packed into their cages and we could see several dead birds lying at the bottom of the cages. We didn’t buy any, not because we are tight, but because we didn’t want to encourage this illegal wildlife trade.

We walked back through a scruffy unkempt Chou Anouvong Park into central Vientiane, where we located a cafe for a much needed BeerLao.

Fully refreshed we continued to Wat Ong Teu Mahawihan, another temple deemed one of the most important in Laos. It was originally built in the mid-16th century by King Setthathirat and is believed to occupy a site first used for religious purposes in the 3rd century.

Next stop was Wat Chanthabull, a beautiful riverside wat built in the 16th century. It is notable for it’s enormous bronze seated Buddha, but we’ll have to take their word for that because the temple was closed.

Now completely Wat’d out we headed back towards our hotel via a restaurant, Lao Kitchen, that received top ratings in every review we could find, but bizarrely closed at 6pm each day.

The dining area at Lao Kitchen was on a white tiled spotlessly clean floor that had the feel of a car showroom with well spaced tables instead of vehicles. It was also well air conditioned, much to our relief.

We ordered 6 x Fresh spring rolls with pork, Heavenly sun-dried beef (slices of beef seasoned with sesame and deep fried) served with their LK green sauce, a portion of Luang Prabang sausage and a couple of beers. They were all cooked to order and were absolutely delicious. The sausage tasted of a Thai green curry. We have earmarked this restaurant for our final meal in Laos.

After lunch we headed to the nearest supermarket to pick up a bottle of spirits. They didn’t have any of the super cheap Lao John Henry whisky we bought for less than £2.50. Even the Thai Hong Thong was £10, so I gave Jackie directions for a short cut back to the hotel, whilst I would walk a big loop via the whisky shop.

I was halfway home when I got a WhatsApp message from a disgruntled Jackie saying that she had come to a dead end. I rang her back and we had a frank discussion about learning to read a map on the phone. After several more messages and calls, the outcome was that a miserable Jackie arrived back at the hotel 2 minutes after me.

As we walked into the hotel, I had a sudden desire to run to the reception toilet for an urgent poo. Without going into any unnecessary detail, I did my business then realised there was no toilet paper, just a shower hose and tap. I had no choice but to try this out for the first time in my life. Ultimately I ended up with a clean but sopping wet bottom!!

It was 3pm, when Jackie and I relocated to the pool sun beds to rest our now blistered feet. My phone had recorded that we had walked 6.5 miles so far that day in heat exceeding 30 degrees. We spent 2 hours wallowing on our sun beds and in the pool until the late afternoon midges or mosquitoes started to make an appearance.

The only thing of note beside the pool was that a smooth lizard sidled up to my sweaty adventure sandals, had a sniff, then waddled off under our sun beds and then into the undergrowth. He did later make the return journey, but I noticed he gave my sandals a wide berth. How rude!!

We relocated to our cool air conditioned room to pack in anticipation of our onward travels in the morning. Later we exchanged more US Dollars for Kip with our friendly receptionist Nou. Jackie bombarded him with questions and ultimately arranged that we would WhatsApp him in the next week or so to arrange a favourable room rate if we return to Vientiane the night before we depart for the UK via Bangkok.

Nou sorted us a KKM into the city centre and we mooched around the streets taking in the atmosphere and looking for a place to eat at. On our travels we located the Fish and Meat Market. It was a hive of activity in technicolor and surround sound. The foods on display looked intriguing and delicious at the same time.

Jackie was particularly drawn to a stall with large oyster shells filled with a heap of an unidentified diced seafood, presumably oysters. They were very popular with the market goers, but Jackie bottled it, fearing she may just be ill on the bullet train.

Soon after we stumbled upon Coco Cafe, which was a cute little restaurant serving Lao food hosted by the most charming cheerful lady. Jackie ordered a Thai red pork curry with steamed rice and I had fried noodles with chicken. It was all very tasty and I ordered a mango and sticky rice with coconut milk for dessert.

Despite devouring most of a huge dome of steamed rice with her curry, Jackie felt the need to eat half of my dessert, mainly most of the mango. To add insult to injury, Jackie later declared that she had eaten too much and she shouldn’t have eaten any mango or sticky rice. The entire meal with 3 large beers cost about £11.

We flagged down a taxi and I negotiated, almost bullied, the driver into agreeing a very decent price to take us back to the hotel. We had a nightcap and had an early night.

Song of the Day - My Sacrifice by Creed.Weiterlesen