Laos Part I: Vientiane

On Friday evening Shanti and I landed in quiet but quaint capital of Laos, Vientiane. We were met at the airport by a friend's taxi driver who took us immediately to her house, a few miles outside of town and ideally located right on a bend in the Mekong. It was a beautifully remodeled traditional Laos house made completely of wood and decorated with wicker furniture, woven baskets, and so on. Even better though, was the view west, perfect for sunsets, across the Mekong and into Thailand.

Though our friend, Jacqui, (in actuality she is someone that Shanti has worked with) was not around, we were met by her cook/maid, San, who greeted us quite warmly and rather humorously, assumed we were fluent in Laos; she just rambled on while Shanti and I looked at her bewildered. Even once she came to realize we didn't understand what she was saying, she'd rattle things off at a mile a minute and once finished, would inevitably chuckle.

Before dinner, we walked down the dirt path along the river in either direction for a bit and, because it was late afternoon, there were a good amount of people out exercising. It felt safe, it was clean, and just seemed so much more put together than so much of Cambodia. We returned to the house by dusk and were greeted with an enormous traditional Laos meal, a mushroom soup, a salad, and a delicious lemongrass chicken dish. After a bit of reading and relaxing, Jacqui came in and we caught up a bit and crashed for the evening.

We awoke the next morning to an absolute downpour. Not the ideal weather for biking around town as we had planned. We tried to wait it out, but it just coming, so we shared a tuk-tuk (a brilliant concept that should be adopted in Cambodia) into town to rent bicycles anyways. We ended up with bikes perhaps even cooler than the one I had for my ride in Kampong Cham: mine was neon yellow and green and, of course had a basket in the front and Shanti's was so rusted that the color was unidentifiable.

We set off with no particular destination in mind (not the best plan in a downpour) and after five minutes and a thorough soaking, we ended up in front of the Lao National Museum, the perfect rainy day destination. The size of the museum was rather small, but it's scope impressive: from dinosaur bones found in Laos to modern day. The contents were mainly focused on 500AD to about 1200AD, though there were significant exhibits on the colonial era and on modern history (mostly deploring the "American imperialists and their lackeys" and extolling the virtues of communism).

Though the rain showed no signs of letting up, we continued on our way, going to a few of the temples in downtown (a term I'm using very loosely for a town with a few big streets and no traffic). Most dated to the 18th or 19th century and were fairly well maintained as well as absolutely beautiful. They were not dissimilar to Khmer temples, except that they were cleaner, in better shape and featured a drum tower, usually a few stories tall, which Khmer temples do not.

Temporarily templed out, we stopped for lunch near Nam Phu, a trendy and touristy part of town with narrow side streets and tasty cafes. By the time we finished, the rain had all but stopped and we went to the impressive Wat Si Sisaket, the original home of the Emerald Buddha (which now resides in the Royal Palace complex in Thailand). What made the temple so interesting was that there were hundreds of niches built into all of the walls, each of which contained at least two Buddha statues, leading to a total of several thousand statues.

From Wat Si Sisaket, we headed for Patuxay, the Arc de Triumphe of the East on the Champs d'Elysee of the East. From afar, Patuxay and the surrounding gardens are gorgeously out of place, appearing to belong in France or Italy. From closer up, though, it is possible to tell that the monument was never finished and it takes on a kind of ugly cement appearance. We paid the $0.35 to climb to the top nonetheless and it was well worth it. We had a fabulous view of the "city" and the surrounding hills from seven stories above the ground (it is quite possibly the tallest structure in Vientiane).

While walking around the surrounding gardens and snapping a few pictures, we were approached by a young Laotian guy eager to practice his English. He asked how we were, how long we had been in Laos, where else we were going and so on. The highlight of the conversation though, and the only reason this story is worth repeating is that in the middle of our chat, he pointed from Shanti to me and back and asked, with a curious look, "Love you? Love you?" apparently asking what our relationship was to one another.

Setting off on our bicycles once more, we rode up to That Dam, a historic monument extremely important to Laos, but wholly underwhelming as a tourist attraction. We promptly left (after paying a premium to get in), returned our bicycles and wandered through the nearby market. The market, unlike those in Cambodia was clean, well-organized, and with wide enough walkways that you rarely had to push past anyone. The beauty of the silks (and the variety) was simply overwhelming.

We had some delicious Shanti-made gnocchi for dinner and, exhausted, called it quits for the day.

On Sunday morning, our last bit of worthwhile time in Vientiane, we walked with Jacqui along the dirt path for a few kilometers, passing beautiful wooden homes, fish farms and a few temples. The tempo, as with everywhere else in Vientiane, was markedly more relaxed than almost anywhere in Cambodia. After our walk and breakfast, we set off for Luang Prabang and northern Laos.