Capital Time

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Well the capital city of Laos, Vientaine was good for what most capital cities are, picking up some essentials, doing a bit of shopping and some monument sight seeing. This was to be Charya's last stop on the moto trip as she decided she would rather fly back to Phnom Penh. The city itself is a beautiful city, but other than some temples, museums, and monuments there is really no activities there.

One of the cool things about Vientiane is that it is probably the first smoke free city I have ever been to in SEA. There are signs everywhere and you are not allowed to smoke in just about any buildling. That can be refreshing as they tend to smoke a lot in SEA especially Vietnam.

My bike was having a bad time there and I brought it to a mechanic because my chain broke. We walked across the street to have some coffee and when I came back he had taken my clutch mechanism apart for some reason and could not put it back together. All I can say is always watch what they are doing to your bike because sometimes they just have no idea. It is a good thing we know enough now that I was able to fix it myself, but at least there was no charge for fixing the chain as he broke more stuff. Just an extra hour or so of work for me.

The day before we left we went looking for the LAo Beer Brewery Beer Garden to try some draft beer lao, but unfortunately we did not find it. Instead we found a local place with no english that we had to point at random things on the menu. It was a good time as some locals wanted to come up start drinking with us. We had one guy who kept buying beer ecen after we told him we couldnt drink anymore. Anytime we wanted to leace he would make a face a point at the beers then himself as if to say "look at all the beer. I cant possibly drink it myself". So we stayed to help, and then he decided he was too drunk and left to go home but wanted us to finish all the beers. Needless to say as soon as he left we were gone 5 minutes later. There is no reason to be polite when the host himself has left.

Our last night there we met some college kids who wanted to practice their english. It was a good time and we all went out to eat and drink. I was very impressed with one of the kids (his name was Joi) he would on just about every girl he saw. Maybe he over did it a bit, but still impressive. At one point he asked a girl for her number and when she replied that she did not have a phone, he pulled out a second phone from his pocket to give to her so she would have a phone he could call her on. She didnt take the bait but still a damn good try on his part.

Sorry for the boring blog, but I am writing it 2 weeks later and we really didn't do that much there. I promise the next story will be better.

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Photos

Victory Monument
or something like that. Appearantly it is copied after some monument in France

Having Fun
We saw some local playing and taking photos on our bikes. I figured we would catch a photo of them that they didnt know about. Our bikes are always a conversation piece

Monks
Just a cool shot really

Easy Ride Today
We decided to take a break from riding for a bit and put our bikes on top of a bus

Hungry?
Pick a meat, any meat

Naga and Buddha
The naga is suppsoed to protect the buddah

Bodhi Tree
Full view

Comments

[Sebastian]

No Italian food?
I am surprised you didn't sample the wonderful retaurants of the capital. It is massively impressive that you could fix the clutch yourself. When you are finished the trip, the old gray battleship car could use a little work... A gentle thought about photos - consider moving a bit closer to the subject for a few shot. We all want to see the PEOPLE first, and then the stuff. Onward,

[Kishor (BHODDHI) (KISH) Jakate]

I like this Bodhi ...........
I'M Proud of U.........