Mike:
Well today was a nice transition day for us, as we (Ming and I) left the cold, gloomy, and crowed Hanoi for Vientiane, Laos.
The flight was pretty uneventful, and very short (50 or so minutes flying time). Upon leaving the plane, we were greeted by an unfamiliar but welcome sight, the sun! It was warm and sunny, so we could finally jettison the fleece, long pants, and socks! It's funny, while figuring out what form to fill out for entry visas, another flight arrived, piling in several dozen people in the once empty booths! Gotta remember not to hesitate next time!
We were initially worried about not having a photo for the entry visa (a requirement), but it seems a $1 surcharge takes care of that!
We made our way to the Inter City Hotel (a top pick in the Lonely Planet), and dropped off our luggage.
Pretty small bed eh?
We then enjoyed a nice, relaxing lunch on the Mekong River. It was a pleasant experience, somewhat disturbed by the barrage of beggars wandering the riverfront tables (must have been 4-5 people in a 20 minute span). The roast chicken was tasty, tho my portion was mostly skin and bone. The papaya salad was spicy and fishy, overall, not a great combo. I'd say almost any of the Riverside food vendors would be pretty good, it reminds me of the riverfront stalls in Singapore, without the high-pressure sales.
We did a little casual wandering through Vientiane, and noted that is was very quiet for a capital city (population about 250,000) as the streets were somewhat busy, but far from the congested chaos of Hanoi. It was similar to Hanoi on New Years (IE, empty). We also felt the blazing sun for the first time in months. Seriously, it was nice to get an early summer!
Ming:
It was so nice to fly from winter to summer after we’d been freezing our behinds off in Hanoi for days, being under the misapprehension that when one lands in a tropical country, it will be hot. By the time we got our luggage dropped off at the hotel and our money changed, we were sweltering and the shade and breeze of the riverside lunch spot was very welcome indeed. We could feel ourselves slowing right down to a slower pace, a process accelerated by the laid back nature of every Lao person we met. Let the relaxation begin!
-----------------------
Mike:
Later in the evening we made our way to the Ban Anou Night Market. This was definitely an interesting site since it was really a Lao night market where you can purchase any manner of skewered meats (chicken parts, and all sorts of other organs n such) as well as fruits n veggies etc. It's a great place to stock up on your Lao goodies and is definitely a local hangout as very few tourists were to be found. We had some yummy skewers (chicken, pork jerky, an some sort of rice cake) and picked up some random fruits we had never seen before. This was also our first brush with accidental bargaining. We kept on asking for a ½ Kilo of fruit but somehow ended up with a Kilo at ½ price! Oops!
Next, our riverfront dining continued as we ate at the Mekong Riverside Restaurant. Unfortunately so did the mosquitoes as I ended the night with about a dozen very itchy bites on each leg (Luckily it's not Malaria season apparently). The food was tasty and we got to sample the famous Beerlao for the first time. A pretty good brew and a great value at 10,000 kip (about $US 1.15) for a big bottle (650 ml). It was a enough to have Ming and I happily stumbling home (we're lightweights). All in all a nice transition from winter to summer...
Ming:
I was very lucky to travel with seasoned globetrotter Mike. He knew to seek out the local markets so we could try out tasty delicacies, and he packed laundry soap, a clothesline, and a sink stopper! I, on the other hand, made sure we had an extension cord and my good globetrotter friend Diane made sure to supply me with laptop lock, sarong, and hiking pole for my Lao adventures.
Our day had started exceedingly early because of our early morning flight and late previous night (I was working overtime to finish a long blog entry) so we were very tired. Mike dropped just about everything he picked up that day and half of his food, which was endlessly entertaining for me. I forgot where I put everything and I forgot my words in the middle of a sentence, which I guess was amusing to him. I think this is why it only took one beer between the 2 of us to have us bump into each other 5 times while trying to cross across a parking lot. Mind you, it was dark and unfamiliar, and it was an uneven dirt parking lot.
---------------
Jan 28th: The Vertial runway, Soooo many Buddhas
Mike:
Well, today we decided to do a bit of light sightseeing in town.
Local "Art" for tourists
I see Vientane and Hanoi use the same electrical crew.
It seems our sense of costs (based on an Aug 2007 Lonely Planet) is a bit out of date as we had a few heated discussions trying to get a good rate on a tuk-tuk (local motorcycle taxi. Kind of fun though a bit of a thrill ride since they are open and pretty unstable at times). In any case, we eventually found a driver who begrudgingly took us to Patuxai, the local Arc de Triomphe. It resembles the fabled French monument but has 4 archways instead of 2. It's also in a relative state of disrepair with bit of rebar poking through sections of concrete here and there.
Patuxai is sometimes referred to as the vertical runway because it was constructed of cement that
was originally purchased for the construction of a new airport runway in the 60's. I guess some local politician decided Vientiane needed a monument instead. The archway still had some very nice carvings and intricate stonework and it was nice to wander around, marvelling at the bright blue tile work that remained as well as the ornately painted ceilings under the archway. The inside of the archway building is basically on large souvenir shop, with thousands of t-shirts and trinkets filling the inside structure. The listless staff seemed pretty bored since no-one was shopping in the dark interiors of the monument.
A walk up several sets of stairs led to various viewpoints where one could enjoy some pretty nice views of the city. There was even a Lao version of the Champs Elysees, though that's quite a stretch as the streets are a bit plain and rundown. We enjoyed the fresh air, took some photos and moved on.
After a quick stop in the tourist bureau, which was surprisingly uninformative, we took a little stroll through the City. An abbreviated walk through Talat Sao market yielded countless displays of trinkets, pirated music, and souvenirs. We grabbed a few tasty fried bananas on the outskirts (yumm!) and walked on.
Ming:
We did learn a few things on our stop in the tourist bureau – how not to offend Lao people while we are here. Hmm, no tank tops, no short shorts, swim in a sarong, don’t raise your voice, don’t touch people, take off your shoes everywhere, don’t touch peoples’ heads, don’t show the soles of your feet… ok, I’ll try.
---------------
Mike:
Our next stop was the famous Wat Si Saket. This temple is believed to be Vientiane's oldest and contains many thousand Buddha images of various sizes and materials. It's really quite remarkable! We spent the next while exploring the temple and trying to find the best way to capture these images.
After satisfying our photographic thirst, we headed home for a rest, and took off for some nice grilled fish at Ban Vilaylac restaurant. There must have been some other “mis-understanding” since we ended up with much more food than we had anticipated. I don't think the Asian vacation diet plan is working...
Ming:
I am finding out that I suffer a lot less when I allow myself the time to acclimatize to the changes in temperature, time zones, and surroundings that happen when I travel. These first 2 days were taken at a leisurely pace, with us deciding loosely what we want to do and then getting around to doing it. We may have gotten less packed into a day than on an organized tour, but I feel like I did these things thoroughly and had a better chance to get in touch with where I had landed. Oh, and the local food is so gooood!
thank you you two for the hard work in writing this all down. it is great to follow your trip through pictures and words. one suggestion though, i found it a little hard to tell where mike left on an ming began.. maybe do what you did in the last entry and head the mike sections as well as the ming sections.....
ReplyDeletethis was wonderful. i am going to share it with all the othr entries on my facebook.