Vientiane: Paris without the fashion!

18th Dec

I arrived in Vientiane around 6.30am after a not so relaxing bus journey. I had to share a bed with a stranger and the roads in Laos arent the smoothest so every few minutes your being jolted out of the bed! It was an experience though. Sleeping pills definately needed next time!
I shared a tuk tuk with 4 other people, whom were all local. Half way through the journey the driver decided to tell me the price had doubled. Which i argued so he dropped me on a random street away from my hostel! Prick. Luckily it didnt take me too long to find.
My plan is to stay here for a few days before heading to Luang Prabang. But first... I need some warmer clothes! The further north i travel the colder its getting!!

I went for a walk after dropping my bags off in the morning i had breakfast at a french cafe and further down the road was a huge market, so i treated myself to a new jumper and shoes! 8 weeks of wearing the same shoes, they were on their last legs! When i got back to the hostel i decided to plan more of my trip. I think Malaysia is now in the pipeline 😝
I am going to try and find somehwere to develop all of my film. My camera has broken so i dont want to carry round the film much longer. Then ive heard there is a park on the river where you can watch the sunset and the street comes to life at night which a food market!

I sat and watched the sunset over the mekong whilst a lady manicured my nails. I could easily get used to this! The market was huge, and was buzzing with tourists and locals. It was mostly clothes so i headed away from the river and found an indian resturant to eat at. I had aloo gobbi which is a potato and cauliflower curry, so good! I met an israli girl in my doorm who asked me if i wanted to join her on a trip to a village tomorrow to see waterfalls but i felt like id seen enough waterfalls over the last few days, plus she was kind of annoying! My plan was to enjoy friday night and go a socialise but I was so tired from the night bus i ended up going to sleep at 9pm!!!

19th Dec

I decided to book my bus to Luang Prabang to leave tonight. I want to spend a few days there before getting the boat to Thailand for xmas. I decided to skip Vang Vien as ive read its mostly for tourists who want to do the tubing, which im not that fussed about. Plus ive not heard great things about it. My bus leaves at 6.30 in the evening so i had another day to explore the city. Vientiane used to be colonised by the french so there are alot of french looking buildings, patisseries and even their own verison of the Arc de Triomphe. Its pretty much a basic Paris.

I wanted to go to the National Museum and learn a bit more about the history of Lao. On the way i stopped for an iced coffee and a Papaya salad. Im not sure why they call papaya salad as it doesnt seem to contain any papaya...

The museaum was small but interesting. It started with dinosaur bones they had dug up, then went onto different ancient artifacts that had been found in the north. There were pots that had been dug up which contained bones and jewelry. There is also a place just before Luang Prabang called "Plain of Jars" which is a huge field filled with thousands of stone "jars". They believe that they were used to burn the bodies of people that had died, along with their belonging, almost like a grave. The larger the jar the richer the person.
The next part talked about "the secret war" between Laos and America in the 1950's. Around 80 million bombs were dropped and unexploded with only 500,000 of them cleard today. 1/3 of the land in Laos still contains unexploded bombs. The farmers are aware of this but cannot afford to move, making it extremely dangerous in some areas!

After i left the museaum i headed back to the hostel to chill out for a bit. There was a nice french cafe across the road so later I had a goats cheese bagguette and an espresso. I sat an watched an old lady batter someones 4x4 with her walking stick because it was parked outside of her gates. She was not happy! The alarm was going off on the car for about 5 minutes while she was continuously walking around it smacking it. Finally a woman came running out of the cafe and moved it, the old lady still continued it beat the car, then waited for the woman to return and shouted at her in Loas. Crazy old bag!!
The tuk tuk picked me up at 6.30 and took me to the bus station. Each contry in south east asia have their own style of tuk tuk, amongst other things. Hence the saying all over "same same, but different." In vietnam it was a push bike and 1 or 2 people sat at the front, cambodia was a moped towing a little carrage which could fit 4 people in and Laos' is a truck which can fit about 16 people in the back and all the luggage on the roof. The driver was flooring it and the roads in Laos are rediculous. Everytime we went over a pot hole i was expecting to see a bag fly off the back! I also noticed behind us 2 children no older than 12 riding mopeds!
I got to the station and couldnt have been happier to see that my sleeper bus was single lay flat seats, the same as Vietnam, rather than a shared (not quite a double) bed!! This one was a bit more fancy though, your blanket came in plastic wrapping, not some dirty old rag that had been used and unwashed! There was also a Jason statham film playing AND... everyone got cake!! This time i have remembered my sleeping pills so hopefully the pot holes won't keep me up. Roll on Luang Prabang 😄Read more