Arriving in Laos was a shock to the senses in more ways than one. Where Kunming was somewhat conservative, cool, clean (maybe not the air but the streets at least), Vientiane was hot, humid, noisy, smelly and very very alive. Vientiane is the capital city of Laos with about 230,000 people and it made a nice change being in a city with less than a few million others! The perception of liveliness was helped by the fact that we’d arrived in the middle of a boat race festival and it seemed like everyone who was in Vientiane was on the streets. Down by the river, speakers every 20 or so metres blared out different music creating a very odd manic mix and was so loud you could feel your chest vibrate when you walked past them. After a few hours of having our senses battered we found solace in a very quiet, peaceful air-conditioned bookshop! We’ve not been in a bookshop for months and months and it might sound strange but it was just lovely.
Vientiane isn’t the most captivating place we’ve been and while we’d heard this from many others, after our Shanghai experience we kept ourselves open to staying there as long as we wanted to. One night was plenty and we spent our short time there seeing some of the sights around the city. The one reason to stay in Vientiane though would have been the food, which was excellent both in quality and value. Someone well travelled commented that, $ for $, Vientiane has the some of the best food in the world and from what we experienced, we’d believe it.
The sights in Vientiane are few but mixed and some obscured by a tangle of cables. However, the main monument in Vientiane, Patuxai, stands unobscured. Patuxai bears a resemblance to the Arc de Triumph in Paris but has four archways instead of two.
This is the view from the top facing away from the river and the manicured gardens are in contrast to the other parts of Vientiane that we saw! Not a good sample perhaps.
We met a character of a chap in a bar that night. Roland was originally from Holland but now lived in a tiny village in north Thailand and had to keep popping out to renew his Visa. He had married a Thai girl, had happily adapted to what sounded like a primitive lifestyle and kept us entertained telling us about his lifestyle and how he managed it. He was telling us how he’d built his own house and only after a section of the roof caved in did he realise that you were meant to put steel in concrete. He had bought a plot of land and was busy growing mammoth cauliflower and cabbage, much to the amazement of the locals who previously thought he was mad lugging buckets of pig manure strapped to a bamboo pole over his shoulders for miles to use on his seedlings. We spent much longer in the bar than intended and Roland was great chat. One of the best things about travelling is meeting some real characters who, in our ‘London lives’, we would never meet.
We were keen to head northwards to a smaller place and hopefully some water so we jumped on one of the local buses (that were in surprisingly good condition) to Vang Vieng the next morning. This bus was piled high with live chickens, veggies, locals and us and it took a long long time over some incredibly rough roads. A taste of what was to come….!
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Vientiane isn’t the most captivating place we’ve been and while we’d heard this from many others, after our Shanghai experience we kept ourselves open to staying there as long as we wanted to. One night was plenty and we spent our short time there seeing some of the sights around the city. The one reason to stay in Vientiane though would have been the food, which was excellent both in quality and value. Someone well travelled commented that, $ for $, Vientiane has the some of the best food in the world and from what we experienced, we’d believe it.
The sights in Vientiane are few but mixed and some obscured by a tangle of cables. However, the main monument in Vientiane, Patuxai, stands unobscured. Patuxai bears a resemblance to the Arc de Triumph in Paris but has four archways instead of two.
This is the view from the top facing away from the river and the manicured gardens are in contrast to the other parts of Vientiane that we saw! Not a good sample perhaps.
We met a character of a chap in a bar that night. Roland was originally from Holland but now lived in a tiny village in north Thailand and had to keep popping out to renew his Visa. He had married a Thai girl, had happily adapted to what sounded like a primitive lifestyle and kept us entertained telling us about his lifestyle and how he managed it. He was telling us how he’d built his own house and only after a section of the roof caved in did he realise that you were meant to put steel in concrete. He had bought a plot of land and was busy growing mammoth cauliflower and cabbage, much to the amazement of the locals who previously thought he was mad lugging buckets of pig manure strapped to a bamboo pole over his shoulders for miles to use on his seedlings. We spent much longer in the bar than intended and Roland was great chat. One of the best things about travelling is meeting some real characters who, in our ‘London lives’, we would never meet.
We were keen to head northwards to a smaller place and hopefully some water so we jumped on one of the local buses (that were in surprisingly good condition) to Vang Vieng the next morning. This bus was piled high with live chickens, veggies, locals and us and it took a long long time over some incredibly rough roads. A taste of what was to come….!
View Larger Map
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