Vientiane - Our final days in Laos

After the abundance of activities in Vang Vieng, Vientiane required some readjustment. We wondered "where were all the cafes serving banana shakes and screening Friends reruns on DVD." It was time to return to more cultural pursuits. We also had to start watching for cars something we hadn't really had to do since arriving in Laos

Vientiane is filled with cheap places to eat. The stuffed baguettes with Laughing Cow cheese were a definite favourite. A big thank you to the French for introducing bread and pastries to Laos. I forgot to mention Healthy Fresh in Luang Phabeng, a cafe opened by Canadians where we enjoyed our first bagels since leaving home six months ago. I greatly enjoyed Lao coffee, its dark and strong. I prefer it served with milk and ice.

I also discovered the green mango salad while having drinks along the river. Exceptionally spicy but also very tasty. I've always enjoyed eating at street vendors as a way to sample the local cuisine. I exercise good judgment but I've never let paranoid fears of bacteria deter me. In Laos eating at street vendors means being surrounding by children begging for food. I watched the locals and it is customary to leave some food behind for the children. While only a small thing it is of some help since often they are not the beneficiary of any money they may receive.

We visited the morning market in hopes of finding some of the beautiful blankets and pillow covers we had seen at the Luang Phabeng night markets. Sadly the selection was a mere fraction of the lovely handicrafts we had seen previously. For those planning a visit to Laos, Luang Phabeng is definitely the place to buy gifts for home as we have not seen anything nearly as nice elsewhere in Laos. Then it was onto the Laos Revolutionary Museum. I found the collection quite amusing with its pictures illustrating the Laos people rising up against the 'evil' French and American imperialists. Not exactly an unbiased account of history but nevertheless informative.

That night we walked for ages to the That Luang festival. Everything I read about the festival used the words 'religious' and 'solemn' so I was shocked at the scene that greeted us. It was a giant carnival. Think the CNE or the Ekka with a million times the volume. Every booth was cranking their sound system to drown out their neighbours as they promoted their cleaning products, clothes, toiletries and other random wares. There was even a Proctor and Gamble tent. I wished Nadine could have been with us to see it. In the middle of the fairground was the That Luang stupa where people made offerings to Buddha. It was a contrasting site in the midst of all the commercialism.

Side Note: My camera stopped functioning for a brief period in Vientiane due to a unfortunate episode with a bottle of water in my backpack. Hence the minimal pictures in this entry

The next day we took the local bus to Xieng Kuane, the Buddha Park, about 25 km outside of Vientiane. The ladies at our guesthouse were dismayed that we wanted to tackle the local bus and tried to persuade us to hire a taxi. But it was our last day in Laos and we were low on kip. Fortunately, the local bus was surprisingly easy to figure out and relatively comfortable considering the return trip cost the equivalent of about 30 cents. The park itself is filled with dozens of concrete Buddhism images. After wandering for awhile we found a peaceful shady spot and caught up on some journalling.

After returning to the city we killed some time before our night bus to Bangkok. Our last minute sightseeing included Ha Pha Kaew, the king's personal temple that was sacked by the Siamese in the 19th century. Most of the stolen goods have been returned except for the sacred Emerald Buddha. That shockingly small yet greatly revered statue still resides in Bangkok.

After the sightseeing we dashed around spending the last of our kip on bus snacks. I wished we could have spent more time in Laos since we had only seen a small sample of this wonderful country. But our time in Asia was quickly coming to an end.

Our route through Laos

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