Mellowing Out
Trip Start
Oct 16, 2007
1
26
83
Trip End
May 09, 2008
Vientiane,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Friday, December 14, 2007
Udon Thani itself wasn't very inspiring. There wasn't much to see, expensive food, and cheesy bars. Frank found a Germany bakery/restaurant ran by a German guy, but the food was quite horrible. Our hotel was a little strange. It was very spacious and clean, with nice staff, but all the walls inside were painted with cartoons. The lobby itself had characters from 'Finding Nemo' painted all over it.
If you already have a Laos visa, there is a very easy , direct 'Friendship Bus' that you can take from Udon Thani directly to Vientiane. Unfortunately since we didn't have a Laos visa, it was a little more complicated to get over the border. The next morning we caught a local bus to Nong Khai (still in Thailand), then hired/haggled a tuk-tuk to the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge. After crossing the Thai border, we caught another bus to the Lao border to get our visa, and then hired another taxi to get us to Vientiane. Considering all of the transfers, we were surprised that everything went quite smoothly. But it took us most of the day to get from Udon Thani to Vientiane.
Vientiane was such a sharp contrast to Hanoi. The streets were quiet, clean, orderly, and not much street traffic. No vendors yelling at you from across the street or chasing you down the street to sell you things. The tuk-tuk drivers weren't aggressive either. They quietly ask you "tuk-tuk, tuk-tuk?" without much pressure, and sometimes we'd also get asked, "tuk-tuk, tuk-tuk? Marijuana?". Pretty funny combination of services there. Overall this capital city looked more developed than Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
We picked up a really cheap scooter to get around town the first day. Although there isn't that much traffic, in Laos people assume that everybody else sees them. They break, switch lanes or turn just without looking. So it was our misfortune that another motorbike quickly pulled out of a side street, making a left turn right into the oncoming traffic - us. With no room left for us, Frank hit our breaks hard and swerved to avoid the bike. Our front break locked on the gravel, the bike crashed and we slid on the pavement. We were lucky that there was no collision and no serious injury! Only scrapes and bruises.
One nice surprise was that Shari found she had a high school classmate, Tu, living in Vientiane with his wife Kaying. They have a fabulous house and invited us to stay with them, which was really nice.
One evening we checked out the restaurant/bar Khop Chai Deau, and found it to be quite the pick-up place. We saw quite a few transactions taking place where local women were trying to pick up foreign guys, or falangs. Frank even glanced in the direction of one women and she immediately locked on to his glaze for a second before seeing he already had a lady sitting with him! The food wasn't anything to write home about, but the bill surprisingly came calculated in 4 different currencies. Kip, Baht, US$ and Euro. What we found out was that Laos operates in 3 currencies, the US$, kip (~10,000 kip to $1) and Baht. It seems that most restaurants, groceries, and other low-cost items are priced in kip, with more expensive items priced in US$. Baht is widely accepted for most places. Whichever way you pay you get your change back in kip. Imagine getting a hotel bill for $20 US, paying 1000 Baht for it, and then getting back 10,000 kip in change. We ended up using 3 separate wallets to hold the different currencies to keep them straight. We also bought a calculator because all the on-the-spot conversions made our head hurt!
Comments
Frustrating?
I have read your blog, and l really like it. l have been in Laos since July ladst year, and l think l've fallen in love with the country. I spent my first 6 months in Vientiane, and now l stay in Pakse. I think I like Pakse better than Vientiane though. I really don't know why. Because there is nothing to do here. Absolutely nothing. But the people are really friendly. The only thing I miss here, is an establishment run by a Lao. All the restaurants and shops are run by Chinese or Vietnamese. It's weird though. This is Laos, but nothing seams to be running by a Lao citizen...
But the strangest thing is that in Vietnam, the Vietnamese are the poorest people in the world. I wonder if anybody can explain this to me? The same in China.
I think that Laos is the best country I've been to so far. I've been in 51 countries so far, and I still have a few more to go. Have a nice day.