Vientiane (Wieng Chan)

Trip Start Dec 26, 2007

Trip End Ongoing

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Flag of Lao Peoples Dem Rep Wien Chang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Friday, April 18, 2008

Vientiane , the capital of Laos is actually pronounced Wieng Chan. We have the French to thank for the funny spellings. Actually, Laos is pronounced like "cow" with an "L". You don't actually say the "s", it is silent. I know, it's weird. I made it here on a truck from Vang Vieng. There were no more seats on the inside but I was more than happy to hold on to the back for the 4 hour trip. I know it was definitely a lot cooler back there than inside with all of the other people piled in. I arrived later on in the evening and after finding a room, I took a much welcomed shower. I wanted to see a traditional Laos performance but the theater where the normally have them was closed until November. I found out from one guy though that there was a hotel nearby that has performances every night but not as good. I found out there was not admission fee, that the show was included in the price of the dinner. They had a set meal ($6) for a huge assortment of dishes. There were two large round tables of about 15 people each and then me sitting at a small table in the corner by myself. The group of people seemed like it could have been some communist party convention because throughout the night I found out that everyone was either from China, Cuba, Laos, or Vietnam. The dinner was great and the show was very entertaining as well. The only bad thing was that not more people knew about it to enjoy it.

After dinner, I was walking to find a local bar. As I was going down one street, I noticed a western couple walking together in my direction.

Lao traditional dance

A couple of seconds later I heard, "Hey, you wanker!" I looked up and saw that two guys on a motorbike had rode by and tried to grab the girl's purse. Luckily, the guy she was with was able to catch the guy by his shoulders before they took off and pulled him off the back of the bike. The would be thief who was driving the bike lost control and crashed in the middle of the street. By this time, the first guy who fell had gotten up and ran off while the couple started to beat up on the guy who was driving the bike. He was able to get it started though and drove off. The girl was a little scratched up and her purse was broken but she still had it. Good guys 1, bad guys 0.

I found a pub with live music and decided to mingle with a few of the locals. Everyone was really nice but the music was unbelievably loud. The bar closed at 12 but I was then invited to an "after hours" club at a hotel nearby. I got there and it was amazing. Almost all of the clubs in the world have at least a 10 to 1 male to female ratio. I found one of the extremely rare clubs where it was almost the complete opposite. I couldn't believe it. I thought to myself, "For sure, something shady is going on here." Like the clubs that are full of girls flirting with the guys who get them to buy drinks but them get a commission off of every drink but in fact this was a genuine rare find. I couldn't believe it, I thought these kind of places only existed in fairy tales. Needless to say, I had a great night. Guys, if you're ever in Vientiane, Laos, do your best to make it to the club in Sun Park Hotel.

Patuxai, Vientiane, Laos

You'll thank me later.

The next day, I rented a bike to be able to see the town. I drove around looking for the Cambodian embassy to try to go ahead and sort out my Cambodian visa. They were closed until 2:30 so I went to the bus station to ask about a bus farther south. The bus station was way on the outside of town and took me about an hour to get there. I was considering on staying another night in Vientiane to be able to go back to the same club as the night before but didn't want to ruin my image of the place so I went ahead and booked a bus for that night. I went back to the embassy only to find out that they were closed for another 3 days. Apparently they make up random holidays and are hard to find working. Sounds like a government job everywhere else in the world. I spent the rest of the day biking around the town and checking out some more temples. THE temple to see in Laos is Pha That Luang. It is the most important national landmark in Laos and impressive to see. I returned my bike and then found a tuk-tuk back to the bus station.

The bus was a sleeper bus, meaning that there are small beds that you can lie down in instead of chairs to sit in. The catch is that you don't have a bed to yourself, two people to a bed. My bedmate was a guy who was about 55 or so. He looked a little upset that he had to share with the tall white guy but after arguing with the people in charge he finally gave me a hug when I lied down beside him. The beds are made for Asian people, clearly not anyone over 5'5". I was able to lie on my back but my legs were cramped up the whole ride. Nevertheless, it was still much better than 10 hours in a cramped seat.