Quiet day in Vientiane

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After running around seeing most of the major sites of Vientiane over the past couple of days it was time for something more sedate so a visit to the national museum was in order. It is only a couple of blocks from the hotel, but then just about everything in Vientiane is only a couple of blocks from the hotel. The museum is a long two story colonial building that apparently became the national museum in 1985. The building itself is in dire need of restoration and some of the papier-mache models look like they were made by school children. The place has the feel of a 1950's museum and some of the English misspellings are very amusing but despite its shortcomings the museum does a pretty reasonable job of describing the history of Laos from the time of the dinosaurs through to the present day. On the top floor the exhibits deal with more modern history from the Siamese invasion of the early 1800's, French colonisation and the revolt from that, through the American war and the eventual victory of the Pathet Lao and communism. One of the quirkiest museum exhibits I've ever seen would have to be the chest expanders used by Kaysone Phomvihane the first prime minister of the Lao PDR from 1975 -1991.

After a couple of well spent hours in the museum I took a wander around the centre of the city and decided on a haircut. A very nice young man plied the shears and gave me a wash and blow-dry, that's a blow-dry ok, for $8, that's about four times the price of a haircut and shave in Cambodia. Vientiane is not overly cheap, I've noticed that just about everything costs $8. Stopped in at a cafe called Pricco, one street over from the hotel for lunch and had a great goats cheese baguette and cappuccino for, you guessed it, $8.

Got everything packed in readiness for the bus trip to Luang Prabang tomorrow and headed to one of the popup restaurants on the banks of the Mekong for dinner to watch the sunset and the public aerobics class.

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