Us in the capital of Laos: Vientiane

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After another trip by minivan, this time fortunately a lot shorter, we arrived in the capital of Laos: Vientiane. Till now we haven't been that lucky with the weather here, when we arrived it was raining pretty heavily and till now it has been pretty much a mix of rain, cloudiness and sudden heat. What makes the rain extra annoying is that the streets here aren't that great and there are often no real sidewalks, so you have to walk on the muddy dirt roads. I wonder if they are just working on the roads (at some places they obviously are) or that it's always that way, cause in other parts, the roads look actually very well taken care off. Hmmz, guess I'll never find out.

I have to say that I don't like Vientiane as much as Luang Prabang, it's a lot less pretty. It's more like a real city, which makes sense, since it's the capital and it lacks the charm of Luang Prabang. But at the other hand, the nice thing here is that there aren't that many tourists and you feel more like you're part of 'a real life'. For instance the day before yesterday in the morning we visited a local market, had lunch there between all the locals instead of in a restaurant with only tourists, which was nice for a change. And today we’ve been to the Buddha park (a park full of statues) and kind of got a tour from a few young Lao monks who were studying English and were thrilled to use their knowledge. It’s really interesting to talk to some locals! We felt so spoiled when we were telling them that we are traveling for 3 ½ months and they have barely been over the Lao border.. Lucky us, that’s one thing we realized again. It was also funny to take the bus to the Buddha park (not only funny, it’s also 10 times cheaper than a private tuktuk), it’s really a good way of seeing something more of a country and its habits. So funny to see people get on the bus with 5 bags full of food, and get out in front of their houses, cause oficial bus stops don’t exist.

Another thing we've done here that I really liked was to visit the museum about the history of Laos. It was really interesting; there were a lot of things I didn't know before. For example, I knew Laos used to be a French colony. However, I didn't know that have fought to get it back again after the 2nd world war, with a lot of help from the USA, who feared the communism that had risen in Laos. Things like that are pretty much must-knows if you're traveling through a country for almost 2 weeks..

The French influence is by the way very well visible here in Vientiane, more than in other cities in Laos. Lots of things are also written in French, and there is an centre that supports the use of the French language. When we visited this centre we found out they were organizing a show in the National Theatre the same evening. We decided to go too, and it was pretty awesome. It was like a ballet show combined with a lot of technical-light effect stuff, really cool. And the best thing was, it was for free, hihi. We did kind of feel like outsiders, between for the rest only Lao and French people, but hey, at least we experienced something different than what's in the Lonely Planet.. 😉

Another thing in which we can very well see the French influence is the food. And, as you know Emma and me, of course we are enjoying that to the fullest! We’ll miss the great croissants, crepes and baguettes for sure! But, we’ve also been brave and tried some typical Lao food, the Laap, which was uhhmm interesting but a bit too spicy for us, hihi.

Tomorrow we’ll be leaving to Cambodia.. Will be quite different, we’re pretty excited about it.. But first we’re gonna head to our favorite restaurant here for some nice dinner (sounds as if the only thing we’re doing here is eating and drinking, doesn’t it 😉)!

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