Laos or Bust

Well, it’s only been three days here in Laos, though it feels like so much more!

We cheated a bit due to time constraints (that and the prospect of a 20 hour plus bus ride didn’t sound all the appealing) and took a flight from Hanoi to Vientiane, the capital of Laos on Saturday morning.

We made it to a hotel where two of the other teachers from Yunnan University were staying, and we checked in. As our official, yeah, we’re in Laos now, welcoming, Chesa opened her cupboard in her room and found a bag full of pot… As there is the death penalty here for drug possession (although I’m not really sure how enforced that is), she just decided to get the receptionist to take care of it. I’ll bet he was happy…

After that, we went exploring, and let me tell you that after the hustle and bustle of fighting motorbikes in Hanoi, calm, peaceful, somewhat sprawling Vientiane. I could hardly believe it was the capital of a country! In some ways it reminded me of Marrakech in Morocco just in pace and what not. It was also quite warm which made all three of us VERY happy.

I’ve discovered that I like doing things that confuse Asians (ie things they don’t think laowai would/should do), so in keeping on that theme, Chesa and I rented a bike with one seat on the back tire, and I peddled her around all afternoon. It was fun and we got quite a few stares. My other favorite thing that has been fun has been telling people that we live in China. The first reaction almost always tends to be “You think I’m Chinese?” It takes us another five minutes of looking in our phrasebooks to explain that, no, in fact we know that s/he is not Chinese but rather Vietnamese/Lao and that it is in fact us who are living in China. Good times!

There wasn’t a lot to see in Vientiane, although I think my favorite, just because it makes me laugh, is the Lao version of the Arc de Triomphe. The best part of the story is that after the US bombed the hell out of the country and we were all friends again, we donated cement to be used to build a new airport. They used the cement for the arc. :o)

As there wasn’t much to see in Vientiane, the next morning we got up early, and travelled by public bus up to Vang Vieng. The town was tiny, and apparently a drug haven (they actually had marijuana and opium on our menu this morning), but very relaxing. I felt at home as we went wading in the river. It was a beautiful day and we wound our way upstream to a bamboo bridge with a sign saying “cave this way.” We decided to go, and ended up spending two hours in the depths of a karst mountain. It was the coolest cave I’ve ever been in because it has yet to be lit and fitted with tourist paths and what not. We just had a guide and a headlight and we were crawling up hydrotubes and under low ledges and whatnot. It was breathtaking!

Today we headed up north to LuangPrabang. I was excited because I heard it was an amazing town, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Town (didn’t know they had those), but it seems like a big tourist trap. Don’t get me wrong though, the scenery is gorgeous!

We’re continuing on to the night market, so I’ll leave you now with a few fun facts about Laos:

• 30%- The percent of the Lao population that doesn’t actually speak Lao. They speak minority languages, the Hmong people being among the highest percent.


• 1/5- The amount of the population of Vientiane that was Soviet supervisors and expats before the fall of the USSR.


• 1- The number of hours that it took for us to get our food at an organic farm restaurant in Vang Vien. A bit longer than other places, but it’s proving about typical. Granted, the food is really good!