What a difference an hour makes, the capital of Laos

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So we're one hour from China, a short flight from Kunming yet it feels like we've travelled a million miles from our last stop. Although we've only been here for two days I can honestly say that I've never met nicer people in a more tranquil and beautiful setting, and we're in the capital city - this is meant to be the worst part of the country!

Laos is known as the country of a million elephants and has the unfortunate tag of being the most bombed country is the history of warfare. It is part of the Ho Chi Minh trail and borders Veitnam to it's East, Thailand to it's west, China and Burma to it's North and Cambodia to it's South. It's a land-locked country that has a similar population to Scotland (5.4M) but is 12 times bigger than Britain, it's the most sparsely populated country is Asia and one of the poorest countries in the world.

First things first, Fiona would like me to point out, and publish, my mistake that had us on the wrong time for the last three days, so here it is.....

When we left China I had read that there was an hour's time difference between there and Laos, when we we landed in Vientiane I am positive I heard the air-stewardess saying that the local time was now 12:15, and hour later than China, it made sense with what I'd read so we changed out watches to 12:15 and off we popped.

We arrived at the Guest House a while later and when we tried to check in the dude told us the room wasn't ready yet, no worries, it's real relaxed, we can deal with that. So we got checked and had a wander around, at 6pm we were hungry and went for dinner, everywhere was deserted but we chose somewhere and had a nice meal, after a few drinks we were back in the hotel and off to bed.

The next morning we were up late and headed for breakfast just before the kitchen closed at 10am, we were surprised that people were still getting served after us up to 10:30 but again we though it was all good. So this went on, shop open after closing time, never got chucked out the pub when we expected etc... On the third day (this is not a bible quote) I didn't have a watch on and asked some dude for the time, he told me in broken in English and I assumed he'd made a mistake, no worries we were heading for the internet cafe anyway. Once there the PC said 16:15, I thought it would be about 6pm so again though the clock was wrong, a quick internet search later and we found out that it was 16:15 and we weer two hours ahead of the real time, we should have went back an hour from China, not an hour forward. Not ideal. I'm glad that we found out today though as tomorrow we're on a 7am bus to Luang Prabang, I wouldn't have been a happy chappy when the bus turned up two hours 'late' and even less happy when I finally found out that we had got out of bed at 4am, 2 hours earlier than we had though it was. Anyway, it's all funny now, no hard done, apart from the sunburn of the midday sun (34 degrees) when we though it would be cool between 2-4pm !!

Back to Vientiane, it's a great place, not the cleanest place we've been (probably up there with Seoul as the dirtiest in fact) but it has a great atmosphere, some good bars and restaurants, chilled out people who don't stare at you and it's cheap as chips, I became a millionaire when I got here, and it only cost me 52 quid, cash back indeed!!

We've visited loads of temples (Wat's) and they're really different from anything we've seen in China and Japan, real colourful and peaceful. Other than that we've just been wandering about, enjoying the sunshine and chatting to the Buddhist monks who like to practise their English. Most people are really shy here, they look and smile but get real nervous when you approach them, the school kids like to chat as do the monks, once they get over the initial contact, are they are happy to show you around the Wat's and chat about Scotland and their teachings.

All in all a great place, a totally different country, the capital city that we're in just now is really small so we're looking forward to our trip up to Luang Prabang tomorrow which is meant to be the highlight of Laos, a small town with over 32 monestories and beautiful Wat's. It's a 10 hour journey by bus along pretty dodgy roads by all accounts but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

Until the next time, look after yourselves, and each other.....

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Photos

Fiona and the Patouxay
The Arc De Triomph of Laos

The drum tower
of the beautiful Wat Ong Teu

The beautiful Wat Ing Peng
in Veintiane, the capital of Laos.

A gold Buddha
at Wat Sieng Ngeunin, Veintiane.

Presidential Palace of Laos
in Veintiane.

The roof of the Patouxay
Laos' Arc De Triomph in Veintiane.

The Patouxay, from the Champs Elyse
Well if it's Laos' Arc De Triomph then Lane Xang must be the Champs Elyse.

Prayer Buddha
at Wat Sisaket, Vientiane, Laos.

Wat Sisaket
Vientiane, Laos.

Comments

[degrubs]

Great blog, I went myself to Laos recently and have experienced the same as you...thanks