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Published: October 25th 2015
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What a difference a border crossing makes! As neighbours, I'd expected Thailand and Laos to be similar (and maybe they are and Bangkok is the anomaly) but the difference was immediate and stark in contrast. In addition to the obvious driving on the right, the condition of the roads seemed to deteriorate and the architectural style of buildings altered. Our first port of call was Vientiane, the capital city of Laos and just across the border. We'd booked in at an Ibis hotel, which did what a hotel needs to do (clean, welcoming, as many mod cons as you could shake a stick at) but without personality or individual quirks, as is the case with all chain hotels. The Laos currency is 'closed' so unobtainable before our travels. A quick trip to an ATM, some fast mental arithmetic around all those zeros (12,000 kip is about £1) and we found ourselves millionaires!
Our first foray to getting our bearings took us to the Mekong river where Thailand could be seen on the other side. Laos was at one time part of the French Colonial Empire and the architectural influences are obvious with wide boulevards and tree lined avenues and mainly
low rise buildings. Many of the street signs and building names are in both Lao and French but the French did not invest as heavily in Laos and the French language itself doesn't seem to survive (a la Tunisia and Morocco), other than on the signs. We found a local bar and had our first taste of BeerLao, and very nice it was too.
Vientiane has a large, resident foreign community. In the bar (fittingly called 'The Drop Zone') we met a New Zealander working in bomb disposal. Laos was bombed more heavily during the Vietnam War than was Vietnam (we heard too many different reasons for this to figure out which was the right one but all of them were tragic) and there is still a huge amount of work to be done to clear away the UXO. The NZ guy said it all had to be done by hand because the terrain is so mountainous and difficult and his company (MAG?) found that women did it better than men because they could chat and work at the same time whereas the men could only do one thing at once and became distracted. Could have told him that!
He had bought himself a plot of land and intended to stay in Laos when he retired. We also met a Swede who was working in Laos as a football youth worker and had been there four years. He was really interesting to chat to and offered opinions on the darker side of Laos, particularly the sex industry which was much more apparent in Laos than it had been in Bangkok where it had previously been prevalent. There were many more older western men with young Lao girls and I wonder if things have shifted, geographically? On the positive side, we also met a chap from Huddersfield (yay, Yorkshire!) who currently works in the USA and was just passing through.
During our stay we visited the Morning Market (I just lurve markets!) and managed to get the cable we needed to do the photos for this blog (not easy explaining that!). I could have bought a ton of stuff for very little but Steve's constant caution of 'weight!' rang in my ears and I restrained myself to things that could cheaply be posted home. We are up to maximum weight for plane travel anyway and my words to Steve
that travelling with 20 kilos for six months is barely enough for most women for a fortnight's holiday fell on deaf ears.
We really enjoyed exploring Vientiane. There are many beautiful temples scattered throughout the city and, in contrast to Bangkok, they were understated but calm and welcoming places to escape city life and become contemplative or just relax and chill. The quiet bell ringing reminded us that monks were going about their daily routine and that these were places of worship.
Suddenly, there are birds in Laos, lots of them, all different varieties, cats, and dogs, proper dogs, what I would call mutts, but they all belong to someone and some of them even have collars!! I later learned that dogs are kept as pets and are considered useful for guarding property and they all looked well fed and cared for, even if they roamed the streets at will.
Other first impressions: There are many HUGE cars, generally of the 4 wheel drive variety and they park where they choose. There is clearly lots of money in Laos, though it may not be evenly spread. The general populace seem to use scooters/mopeds as the favoured means
of transport. Babes not yet able to walk have developed the ability to grip onto a parent on a bike and travel fearlessly. There are no roundabouts (at least none seen so far). There are no foreign fast food enterprises (eg Burgerking, KFC, MacDonald's). The guesthouses look to be of much better standard than in Bangkok (good, because we're due to stay in one soon). Chatting to the hotel staff, they were amazed that we had even heard of their country, let alone made the effort to visit. Apparently someone in Korea made a film about Laos and this has promoted a sudden influx of Korean visitors. They vastly outnumbered the other nationalities we came across but there was a fair spread of those, mainly European, with some Australians and a few Americans. Finally, the Lao people themselves seem genuine and friendly with a laid back attitude - no hassle here and fair prices for the tuk-tuks!
We booked our transfer to our next stop. Everyone said that, given a choice of VIP coach versus minibus, VIP coach was the way to go so that's what we booked. Let's hope it is the right decision!
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Cina
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The Intrepid Travellers!
Wow! How amazing are you two? What an incredible journey you are having, I've just caught up with your blogs, it's like reading an adventure story! You are such a good writer, l can't wait for the next instalment! Hope you continue to have an amazing time, enjoy yourselves, keep safe, lots of love, Cina, xxx