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Published: July 22nd 2008
OK - I have just spent half an hour writing this blog out TWICE only for it to dissapear on me TWICE. So , third time lucky.
We arrived in Vientiene yesterday - no tubing in Vang Vieng , torrential rain every day. Vientiene is the capital and much more obviously a relic to French colonisation than the other places we've been in Laos. All street signs and most shop signs are in both Laos and French and there are a lot of petit-chateau style buildings around. Baguettes and Croissants are abundant but that is true of Laos in general. It's a lovely wee city right on the Mekong with a population of about 20,000 - lots of nice restuarants and impressive buildings which is a far cry from the Bamboo roofed villages we've been in before now. Not too many dogs but a lot of cats - all of whom seem to have short tails but, as with everywhere in Laos and Thailand, every street has about 10 shops all of which seem to be selling the same things. Every cream and soap and potion seems to have a whitening agent in them so I am dabbling with the
idea of turning invisible - mental to think that one half of the world is slabbering tanning crap on themselves and the other is lashing on the bleach - we should swap continents...
Our guesthouse is grand although we are not too sure where they stand on the whole curfew thing. Again, there is a late opening Bowling alley here (why after hours drinking and bowling go together we're not sure) but most places shut around 10.30/11. We made it in before curfew last night (getting old obviously) but have arranged to meet up with a couple who we ran into today and were on the slowboat, tonight so we might get a chance to test it. The rules of the guesthouse include the usual ban on bringing prostitutes in - tame in comparison to the rules printed on the wall of our room in Luang Prabang wherein we were asked not to bring domestic or foreign prostitutes to our room for the purpose of make sex video. We managed to restrain ourselves.
Last night we went out for some grub and then hunted for a pub/bar or something resembling same. We found a dimly lit bar room
but the proportion of old rich western men with young Thai women was a little much to take so we skiddadled out of there and ran in the pouring rain (just like home) towards the river. We found a wee spot complete with Bamboo roof where we drank Beerlao while the frogs hopped about - one hopped onto Paul's arm, then shoulder, then away.....
Today we went to Buddha park - it had been likened to Gaudi park in Barcelona but it's a lot smaller. It's basically a field with loads of sculptures and statues of Buddha (chinese Fat Buddha, the 7 Laos Buddhas - one for every day of the week, Sitting Thai Buddha etc) , Hindu Gods and animals. There was a giant head that we could go into and climb up to the top for a great view (health and safety not a major issue in Laos). Inside was full of statues of all shapes and sizes and was a little eerie but cool. We have pics of course but apart from that one wee internet shop we found where we could stick the memory card directly into the computer, we have been unable to share.
Soon my patient friends, soon...
We've left our passports in for the purpose of getting Cambodian visas and should get them tomorrow. We're not 100% sure of where our next stop will be but think we might head further South for a few days before crossing the border. Until our next update Batfans, smell you later. (See what I did there)
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shane
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getting brave.
Your getting into the swing of things by the sound of it. From not eating from the street vendors in Bangkok to eating leafy fish entrails. Good going. Did you have any cakes in Vientiane? i remember them as particularly nice. What did you do In Vang Vieng when it rained? Hmmm. What was there to do....?