It doesn't make me feel like a man.

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It’s very rare to see a capital city and the highest structure is around 4 storeys high. Vientiane, the Laos capital is one of those cities. It’s a fleeting visit type place. Not much to do but rent a bicycle and ride around or organise a VISA for the next destination.

Hiring a bike is a real nice way to see the city. Mostly flat, the sites are easy to get to except for two of the major sites which we didn’t bother doing. There is however Patuxai (Victory Gate) an attempted replica of the Arc de Triomphe which is hilarious. Not because of the building but the comment on the sign telling the tourist of its history. Here’s a blurb:

…built in 1962 (B.E 2505), but never complete due to the country’s turbulent history. From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete…
This sign sums up the honesty of the Laos people. Why lie? Just tell it like it is.

We also saw another Wat temple took some photos and that’s about it. Except one thing. The Vientiane Shooting Range. Not in the guidebooks anymore because of the whole ‘lets make the world a beautiful place’ attitude. It was in my terribly outdated Lonely Planet SE Asia book. So we were the only tourists there and we didn’t feel welcome as vicious dogs greeted us. Teeth and eyes to kill. Johannes and I were more scarred of the dogs than the guns.

We shot two weapons: The first was a long-range rifle. Target 30m away - My only previous experience of a gun was when once a week I shot a pellet gun at my grandfathers place maybe 20 years earlier.

Thinking I was going to get a rush from pulling the trigger I was bitterly disappointed. I thought this was going to make a man out of me. At least that’s what it looks like in the movies and on TV with the Taliban.

It was quite easy really - the instructions were quick. “Put this under your arm. This is the trigger, aim here and shoot.” 30m away is a black target with white circles that I can’t see and shot. After three goes a say to Johannes “I don’t even know if I’m hitting the target?” After 5 shots I came back with two sevens a six and a five. Another went off without aiming because it was quite sensitive.

But it was time for another weapon: 9mm - To feel more masculine we got a target of a man. And not just any man - a black man with white circles on his chest. I had a moving target because of the wind and my hair went in the way so I hit the shoulder. Again not much effort just a light tap on the trigger but this time there was some force back. The experience was okay but no rush.
From that we got on our orange pushbikes, which were parked next to some Suzuki and Honda motorbikes and cycled off - Feeling no more than just an everyday bloke.

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Photos

At the ATM
Max is $140