Vientiane, Laos

Mandy: Saturday 22nd – 25th November

So we boarded a ‘plane not much bigger than a transit van and left idyllic, mountainous Luang Prabang and headed towards the very flat Capital city of Vientiane. This was the smallest ‘plane I had been on (excluding the tiny water ‘planes in the Maldives and the tiny ‘plane over the Grand Canyon some 30+ years ago). Therefore I hope everyone will understand why I felt the need to have a tipple of left over Burmese Whisky instead of breakfast that morning.

We weren’t expecting to be blown away with Vientiane after staying in the beautiful area of Luang Pragang but thought we needed to experience a city as well as the countryside in Laos. We flew across more mountains in the smallest plane yet, a 56 seater prop ‘plane; I was delighted! I really aught to be used to this flying malarkey by now but I just can’t shake off the worry and see the newspaper headlines of what could happen.

We arrived in Vientiane and the staff in the Moonlight Champa Guest House were friendly and welcoming and it had a good feel to it. Yet again we had to leave our shoes outside (a common practice in Asia) and we were shown the common seating area and small kitchen where we were told we could make our own tea and coffee at any time and help ourselves to the free snacks….. Bananas! I was delighted to see the most clean and orderly kitchen area that I had seen since leaving the UK. (Smile) we dropped our bags off and changed in to less clothes; it was a lot hotter here than in Luang Prabang. We walked down to the Mekong River and looked across to see Thailand, it was strange to see it so close. There were plenty of restaurants and cafes and ornate temples along the way. Huge new cars went slowly along the streets. It seemed they either have money or they dodn’t, no in-between and no rushing about which ever your fortune.

We ate lunch in a cafe which had the kitchen out front like a lot of them do. Although it was different because It was the most organised and clean kitchen we had seen. They had the food covered and used plastic containers. They had an amazing assortment of salads and herbs and veg much like in Vietnam. It also looked like it had actually been washed! (I could confirm that it had later when I used the toilet as there was a grill in the toilet which looked through to the kitchen so you could see the young girls sat on the floor with bowls of water washing the lettuce etc) They were very busy and had a queue for take-aways too which is always a good sign. This means that it can take longer to get served of course but it didn’t matter we had people watching to do! We ordered and set about looking at what everyone else was eating. (Smile) The other tables were full of non western people, another good sign for us.

I think I have mentioned before about Balut, which is a developing duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. (Might not have mentioned the being boiled alive bit) We have seen them being sold on street stalls previously but lots of them were being eaten that day in the cafe. Every other table had a plate of them as well as their main meals. I wanted to take a closer look when they were eating them but didn’t want to appear rude or touristy!

That evening we walked back down to the riverside and sat at a cafe which we noticed earlier as they were barbequing whole fish etc. We sat down ordered a beer (which was surprisingly cheap for the area!) and across the road we noticed there were some sort of funfair type stalls. One of them had balloons in a wooden frame and people were paying to throw darts at them in the hope of winning a bottle of pop or a giant teddy! Glen was not best pleased about the continual banging but I thought what the hec it’s different here. Suddenly a guy on a megaphone started shouting something which we could not understand and on a stage somewhere nearby some sort of show started. There were people dancing around in ancient Chinese character and animal costumes. The music was so loud and awful! The impressions of the horses and dragons or whatever they were dressed in were like nothing we had heard before! Glen said they couldn’t possibly keep that up long; give it 20 minutes and it will be over. So we ordered thinking it would stop soon. But it got worse and even louder! Every now and again we had our minds taken off the bizarre show as we watched a ladyboy walking back and forward oh and we watched a very fat (or pregnant) sausage dog eating out of the cafe’s washing up bowl.

The first morning we were sat in the communal area waiting for our free fresh cinnamon bagels to arrive and started chatting to a American solo female traveller. She told us she spends most of the year travelling with work but was actually touring Asia for pleasure on this trip. She told us that he job was the travel arrangements and Visas etc for Arcade Fire and Radio Head when they are on tour. She had organised the world tour including Glastonbury so has been to Bath….and stayed at The Priory Hotel!

The Guest House offered free bikes so off we went to explore along side the big cars with huge wheels.

Patuxai, the Victory Gate.

We had noticed that there were cockerels in the yard next to the hotel but it didn’t matter because the aircon was as loud as a jet engine and there was also a huge fan, (not the lovely ornate sort they used to sell in Wrays Lighting Emporium in Park Street back home) it was black and resembled a propellor of a ‘plane. Not exactly the relaxing atmosphere for a flying-phobe like myself but after all the walking and cycling we did in the day I didn’t have a problem sleeping.

Pha That Luang gilded stupa. The national symbol and most important religious monument of Laos.

We have seen lots of locals wearing these plastic claw shoes in Laos. I had to get a photo of them….

to this young guy’s amazement!

Vientiane is situated on a bend of the Mekong river, which forms the border with Thailand. On the banks of the river in Laos stands this statue of King Sisavang Vong.

One night we walked away from the main streets and down an alley filled with little food stalls. We were the only tourists there. The signs and prices were not in English, the food was clearly not for us. There were the usual bbq meat, sweets (glutinous paste with coconut), cooked Frogs, Chicken feet, the usual intestines and a whole pig including the head! There was a stall selling snails and a different variety of insects. Not just the crickets but other little grubs and the usual grubs and1,000’s of little beetle/bug things. The lady selling them saw me looking, so she scooped up a load and thrust them towards me! They looked a bit like those green ‘stinky beetles’ we get in the UK, anyway I indicated I wasn’t hungry and she just laughed! She knew I wouldn’t want to eat them! I so wish I could have taken photos of that line of food stalls but it was bad enough that we were walking down there looking at the food let alone taking photos of it!

As I write this Vientiane blog during our four hour coach trip to Vang Vieng I ponder the question “Do monks have holidays?” because we sat opposite one in this little cafe in Luang Prabang.

The monk sat down opposite us and started to smile as we were showing just how sticky and inedible the rice was by standing the chop sticks up in it. He found us amusing! Thinking about it they must have Holidays as we saw and spoke to that one in the airport….. Anyway I am also wondering if the monk we sat with at lunch that day was an important one as he had two ‘plain clothes’ escorts who ordered his food and then poured water over his right hand to wash it before he started his food. He didn’t look like the sort of monk to queue at 5am in the morning for Alms giving! He was tucking in to a whole fish stuffed with lemongrass and a plateful of meat (offal) and he was enjoying his sticky rice! Wish I had asked if I could take his photo now, he seemed like he was up for it but I didn’t want to spoil our little ‘chat’ by offending him.

Jack, I thought I would show you the industrial toilet paper holder we had in our bathroom!! No likelyhood of running out whilst we stayed there. Does this get any points?

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