To Vientiane : the Laos Capital

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ToVientiane: The Laos Capital

Vientiane was only meant to be a stop to get to Ho Chi Minh City from where I had the flight home on the 13^th. Leaving Luang Prabang if anything I wished I could prolong the stay in LP. My hosts in LP, a young couple managing the guest house was so kind and helpful. He even loaned me 200,000 kips (that is unit in Laos, and is only about 15 USD) when I had no kips and had to wait for the next day to change money. But I had to stick to my itinerary. I had two options, the day bus or night bus. I picked the day bus as I could not cancel my hotel booking in Vientiane for the night. I had read that day trip, even though long and tedious, was through some beautiful parts of Laos with fantastic scenery; and I was not disappointed.

The ticket was for an 8 AM bus that leaves the south bus terminal. One has to be present 30 minutes early for the bus. I was at the terminal only 15 minutes early. There was bus a waiting but with nobody around. By 8AM a few passengers arrived, we got ourselves seated in the bus but nothing happened for nearly an hour. The bus finally pulled out of the bay by 09:00 hrs, but it promptly stopped at the nearby Petrol station for refueling. Then, for some reason, they had to go to the next station and get fuel. Finally we headed South around 09:20 hrs. Only later did I remember that there was to be another bus at 09:00 hrs and as the numbers were down they may be combining the trips.

Within a few minutes we started to climb. The assistant on the bus came and distributed plastic bags to all. At cold not understand what that was for. I knew the terrain was mountainous but did not expect what was to come.

I do not know when and how the road was built, early traffic between Luang Prabang and Vientiane was using the river Mekong which connected the two towns. The mountains were similar to “Western Ghats” in Kerala. I had made trips to the hill stations where one had to attain heights of close to 3,000m. To achieve this the road had a lot of "hair-pin" bends. Here the situation was different. Here they did not want to gain height but were forced to go up as they had no choice but to climb the hill to get to the other side. There were barely any hair-pin bends on the route but the road was cut into the hillside hugging every contour of the hill. As the aim was not to achieve height we were traveling between 1000m and 2000m going up the side of one hill coming down the other side. At one point my altimeter showed 2230m. This went on for over 6 hours including a half an hour delay due to a mud slide. Luckily earth movers were working away to make a pathway for the traffic and we were lucky to have only such short delay.

During this period we were passing through most enchanting foliage of lush green trees. One could hardly call it forest as you could see man’s handiwork everywhere. Even amid the forest there were settlements especially nearer the road. It appears Laos had a reforestation programme. I have not seen so many Teak trees in my life. In some areas they were stretching for miles and they were “planted”, some even had numbers on them.

With the altitude of course there were precipices one did not want to see or go down, but in most places the abundance of trees meant that you will be stopped even if you slipped down. Another reassuring aspect was how careful the driver was. During this 6 hours we covered about 140 km, not even making 30 kmph. It was only after this stretch was covered did we even stop for lunch well after 15:00hrs as we were running very late.

Even after this “Ghat” section, the green vista did not change. Unfortunately we could not attain any big improvement in speed with the twisting and turning of the road. We were still going over rolling hills but the turns and twists were marginally reduced and we did not have to worry too much about the steep drops to the side. Once we hit the lower plains near Vientiane the roads were getting better but it was already dark.

We were at the bus station which was short of to the city to the North-West before 20:00 hrs. Some us got together and hired a mini van to the city centre.

Vientiane itself is a smallish city for the capital of a country. The Thai empire conquered the city in the late 18^th century. Following a revolt by the local king, the city was torched and graced to the ground in 1835 and was almost abandoned. However the French who arrived later rebuilt Vientiane in French and Lao style and kept it as as their HQ of the protectorate of Laos. One can see the French influence everywhere.

The heart of the city is the city is the Putaxy Monument. It was built as the Lao “Arc de Triumph” but with Buddhist symbols and carvings. It had 5 stupa shaped towers. Built in memory of Laos who were killed fighting the Thai, the Japanese and finally the French. This is a huge concrete structure from the top which (no lifts, ~300 steps) one can get a panoramic view of the capital. All major government buildings and important embassies are scattered around this landmark as are many Buddhist temples, university and museums.

A walk to the Mekong shore was disappointing as the river widened with swamp areas near the city and the water far far away.

The only way one could travel (other than hiring a motor bike) was by tuktuk. I could get back from the city centre for 50c. Food was similar to Thai but I found it it shade more expensive than in Luang Prabang. There were not many back packers walking the streets, most just used Vientiane as a hopping point for LP.

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