Vientiane, Laos

My family has been going to the same sushi place in South Florida for like the last 20 years. Aside from making the best sushi, they are some of the nicest people you could ever meet, and welcome us in like family. Why am I telling you this? Because most of them are from Laos, which is one of the main reasons I was intrigued to go there in my trip through Southeast Asia. When they got wind that I was going, they put me in touch with some of the family who could show me around.

It was a long windy trip from Luang Prabang to the mountain town of Vang Vieng in a cramped little van. I scored the shotgun seat which was good, but then I noticed that there was a little Lao guy who was trying to hitch a ride as well. Apparently if the bus is not completely full, the locals are allowed to hitch a ride for free. Well there was one open "seat" in the van which was the sliver of space between me and the driver. Realizing what was about to happen, I got out of the van and faked a phone call, and waited for that guy to get in and slide over next to the driver, so that it wasn't me crammed in the middle. Success. I wrapped up my fake phone call and hopped in. Feeling a little guilty, I offered the guy some Lao candies as we departed, which he happily accepted.

Since it was a long ride, probably 6 hours or so, we made several stops along the way for food and restrooms. There was a really friendly Swiss guy who at every stop would tell anyone that would listen how hungover he was and what a wild night he had had the night before, partying with some locals. I got a big kick outta this, and we shared a few good laughs along the way. At one of the other stops, I sat down with a cute little Croatian girl who spoke 7 different languages, including perfect English, and was travelling around helping to restore archeological sights as well as blogging. What interesting people you meet along these trips! The three of us hit it off and we stuck together when finding a hostel in Vang Vieng. We each planned to stay 2 nights there before making our way to the capital city of Vientiane. The big thing to do in Vang Vieng is tubing along the river, which is supposed to be totally bonkers, with bars and crazy swings all along the river. You can imagine the scene. In fact, like 10 people died there the year before. Sounded awesome. Unfortunately it poured the entire time we were there, so no tubing for us. Instead we hung out in the hostel, watching old Friends reruns that were playing on not only the TVs in our hostel, but several of the other places in town. Random.

The next day we arrived into Vientiane and I was greeted at the bus station by my Lao friends Jip and Chiang, who worked at the restaurant a few years back. We grabbed lunch and caught up, and then they showed me to my hotel. Later that evening, my other Lao friend Donna picked me up and we did dinner at an awesome Korean style BBQ place with Nika and Marc, my two new friends from the bus ride. It was so much fun, and so good!

 

The next day, Donna was our personal tourguide, showing us all around. We kicked things off by driving a bit outside of town to the Buddah Park, which was an area full of huge Buddist / Hindu statues. They were really intricate and bizarre, and appeared to be hundreds if not thousands of years old. Wow! Although I later learned that some guy had built it all in the late 1950's. LOL. That took away some of the mystique, but still really cool and impressive, and a fun way to spend a few hours.

 

Don't eat me!

 

Unhand her!

 

We then visited a few of the temples around town.

 

The golden temple above (Pha That Luang) had a little old lady selling boxes of small birds. What?? Apparently it is good luck to set the birds free in front of the temples? Donna rolled her eyes as I fished some money out of my pocket, but I had to try it.

After that we strolled over to the town square and enjoyed the sunset from a cool little tower which overlooked the city.

 

That night Donna took me to one of the chic restaurant / nightclubs in town. It was an interesting place, with 2 different live bands rocking, one indoor and one outdoor, as well as a wall of karaoke booths. After a long day of sight seeing we feasted that night. I felt like we ordered one of everything off the menu and it was all delish.

Donna noted how impressed she was that I was able to hang with her on the spice scale, which I of course took as a badge of honor considering I told her to show no mercy in that regard ;)

The next day Jip and Chiang kindly offered to drive me over the border into Thailand so that I could catch my flight out. Along the way we had to stop at one of the local markets so that they could buy a few gifts for me to bring back to my parents. Such nice people, and such a nice way to cap off my trip through Laos, a place that I had heard so much about over the years!

 

 

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