Culture Shock

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Geo: 17.97, 102.61

We arrived in Laos yesterday via the Friendship Bridge<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">over the Mekong River. The border crossing went pretty<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">smoothly and we found transport to Vientiane (the<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">capital) no problem.<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">The change from Thailand to Laos was immediatly<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">apparent. The outlook went from sparse, dry vegetation<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">to bright green paddy fields as far as the eye could<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">see. Things were looking up.<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">As we moved further towards the centre of town it<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">changed again to dusty and urban and we were choking<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">on the diesel fumes.<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">We were dropped off at the wrong guest house which<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">appeared to be right in the middle of a construction<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">site. After some general stuffing around we found a<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">taxi (as in a real car!) to take us to quite a nice<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">guest house next to the Mekong River.<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">We then went in search of some lunch but had trouble<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">with language, menus, currency and closing times. Most<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">things close down during the middle of the day (there<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">is a large European influence here). Finally managed<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">to<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">find some food at about three o'clock. The restaurant<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">had four items on the menu and two were unavailable!<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">However, we eventually got fed and found a bank.<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">Commission charges are outrageous. We have since sort<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">of found a way around this but at the time it seemed<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">like everything was against us.<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">Anyway, last night after a shower and a bit of a rest<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">we plucked up the courage to venture out again and<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">found a nice restaurant overlooking the Mekong from<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">where we watched the sunset. The smog makes a very<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">aesthetic purple haze!<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">Today things have gone a bit more smoothly now that we<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">have our bearings. We managed to find a reasonably<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">priced internet cafe and a bank without too much<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">trouble. We were planning to go to the revolutionary<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">museum but it appears to be closed due to lack of<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">interest. Well actually there is a rather magnicicent<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">cultural hall being built across the road so we<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">presume the museum is being rehoused.<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">We will now go and get some lunch before the<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">restaurants all close and then we plan to visit the<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">Laotian version of the Arc d'Triomphe where we can<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">climb to the top for a view of the city (not sure how<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">pleasing that will be??). We then plan to catch a taxi<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">about 20km out of town to the "ethnic park" where<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">there is apparently gardens and zoo.<br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px;">

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