Are these posts getting too serious?

  Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Friday, December 15, 2006

Here I am in the big city of Vientiane.  Arrived in relative luxury on a "VIP" bus, which mostly just meant a little more (much needed) space for my legs.  Within half and hour of checking into my guesthouse, I ran into Gina (from Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng).  Have heard lots of stories of people running into people they met weeks or months earlier in their travels, often several countries later.  Still, the world doesn't seem so small when it's hour seven on the bumpy/curvy ride between two towns a centimeter apart on the map.

Since Vientiane has the fastest, cheapest internet in the country, I've spent many an hour in internet cafes working on all these recent posts.  Have managed to get out and see a bit of the city too though. Vientiane sits right on the banks of the Mekong, with Thailand one very long stone's throw across to the other side.  It has it's charms, including the usual French architecture and food.

01 View from my Guesthouse Terrace

Speaking of which, one of the best things about Laos so far is the baguette sandwiches you can get for a dollar everywhere.  The quality varies (the ones at the bus stations tend not to be so great), but they're a nice break from noodle soup.  But Vientiane isn't all about baguettes, there's also free reading material!  I've enjoyed starting my days in a bakery with the English language Thai newspapers available to read, and have spent a few lazy afternoon hours in a fruit shake place with copies of Newsweek, Time, and the Economist.  I also found a recent issue (brought here from California) of Backpacker magazine in my guesthouse, and have enjoyed sitting on the second floor verandah reading, ironically, about all the great places to travel in America.  As you can tell, I've been enjoying a relaxed pace and appreciating having something other than the Vientiane Times (which often reads like a lecture on how great the government is) to read.

08 That Luang

OK, so I mentioned earlier how I'd actually gotten out to see a bit of the city.  I went to Wat Si Saket, where I saw hundreds of tiny Buddha sculptures set into the walls.  Climbed to the top of Patuxai, the Lao version of the Arc de Triomphe, which apparently as constructed with concrete donated by the US to built an airstrip.  Visited That Luang, the most important national symbol, pictured on the money, and said (like countless temples in Southeast Asia) to conain a relic of the Buddha.  Yes, that means an actual piece of the physical person, brought here from India several thousand years ago.  Also, it's really really shiny.  I made the trip out to Buddha Park, which I would call a ridiculous tourist trap except for the fact that there were only two other tourists there.  Finally, I checked out the National History Museum, for a lesson in how our fellow comrades had thrown off the shackles put on them by the imperialst west.  Seriously though, we've done some pretty awful things to this country, whatever our motives might have been.

Other than that, I checked out the little Chinese night market where I tried a few more previously unidentifiable food items, and said "no thanks" to about a hundred tuk tuk drivers.  I can't finish without mentioning how almost every tuk tuk driver in Laos is also a drug dealer.  Which means every time you pass one, he says "tuk tuk?", followed by "something for you today/tonight?".  Which translates as, "wanna buy some drugs?"  I suppose the fact that the country is really poor (which we westerners have a lot to do with), paired with lots of tourists who are willing to buy, makes this inevitable.  Still, for a country which ostensibly loathes drug use, it seems as if drug dealing is A-OK with them as long as the government gets their share of the profits (I assume).  So there's the latest lesson for you, kids.
 
Might not be another post for a while, as I don't anticipate great internet for the next few weeks, but I'll find a way to get something up here as I head further south.  Don't forget to visit Flickr.