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Published: August 16th 2010
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Tuesday, 02/02/10
We got up very early to have breakfast then returned to the hostel to wait for our van. There was a tiny black puppy living at the hostel named Tommy and we had fun playing with him while we waited. The people in Laos really seem to love their dogs. In Shenzhen, dogs are either food or a status symbol. Our van arrived on time and it was a bumpy, hot, yet mercifully short three hours to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It was so oppressively hot in the city that we thought longingly of the cool breezes in Luang Prabang as we lumbered up and down the streets with our packs looking for the hostel we had found in a book. We couldn’t find it. And although we had the address no one seemed to be able to give us directions. Finally, soaked with sweat and exhausted, we checked into a real hotel. It was a little more expensive, but it was a real hotel! With a real bathroom and a TV and air conditioning! Sweet, sweet, blessed A/C! We spent a few blissful minutes in our cool room then went back out. We were on a
quest for a bank that would exchange my Chinese RMB. It was not an easy feat. We must have stopped at four different places before finding one that would accept my Chinese money. The rate wasn’t very good, but beggars can’t be choosers. Then we spotted a Tex-Mex restaurant and dove in for fajitas and enchiladas. We went back to our hotel and lounged in the A/C and watched TV (which felt like a real treat) then went back out later for dinner. Then it was straight back to our exceedingly comfortable, nothing-to-complain-about hotel room.
Wednesday, 02/03/10
We got up at the butt crack of dawn and had a very acceptable free breakfast at our hotel. We went out into the morning heat to find the dinner theatre (which we did quite easily due to Kim’s excellent sense of direction) to buy tickets and go to the morning market for some souvenir shopping. The morning market in Vientiane was not charming like the night market of Luang Prabang. It was much more like a US flea market than a craft fair. But we still found an adequate supply of t-shirts, textiles, and other bits and bobs. We had
to return to the hotel to drop off our purchases and shower before going back out to do some sight-seeing. We went to the Arc Thing. I can’t remember what it’s called and at the moment I’m too lazy to look up the name. But I don’t think there is a name lovely enough to redeem the Arc Thing. It was ugly. It looked like someone had some extra concrete and didn’t quite know what to do with it. We got some strange ice cream, sat in the shade of the Arc Thing, and pretended it was cooler there. Some Chinese tourists were there and they tried to inconspicuously take pictures of us but we rumbled them pretty quickly. After they realized we knew what they were doing they decided not to try to hide it and walked over to us. The wife plopped her kid next to Kim and they posed with us for pictures. After convincing ourselves that we had cooled off we walked over to a temple museum called Siskaket Wat. It is the only original temple left in the city. All the others had been destroyed (by the Thai, if I’m remembering correctly) many years ago.
It was small but very gracefully built. Surrounding the small wat was an arcade of Buddhas. I’ve seen about a million Buddha statues in my two years in Asia but I still like looking at them.
We returned to the hotel for shower #3 of the day and to rest before the evening’s dinner and show. The show was very similar to the one we had seen in Cambodia the previous year. I suppose it’s to be expected that the neighbors would have some cultural similarities. The food was excellent. The sticky rice in Laos is so good. I don’t know what is different about it but I couldn’t get enough of it. Kim and I were the first to arrive and therefore the first to be served our food. The show began at 7:30 but we noticed that there were still some empty tables. Kim bet me that Chinese tourists would arrive to occupy the empty seats at 7:45. I took her bet and said they’d arrive at 8:00. They came bustling in at 7:58 so I counted it as a win for me.
On the way home both Kim and I were in a bad way.
George, is that you?!?
Kim much prefers kittens The food had not set well with me and I really felt like I was going to throw up. Kim, on the other hand, had a painfully full bladder. So we were both moaning on the walk back to our hotel. However, we both spotted a hilarious buck tooth guardian statue outside of a temple. Despite our mutual discomfort we stopped to snap a picture of Kim mocking the guardian. Good times. It was time to pack again for the next day’s flight to Kuala Lumpur.
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Trish
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Bug
That bug doesn't even look real. Was it alive?