Laos Part 1: Vientiane

I've done a considerable about of traveling around South East Asia last year but unlike most backpackers I've done everything in little spurts. A weekend in Indonesia here, a weekend in Malaysia there... almost always flying wherever I went in order to take advantage of cheap airfares and maximize the little time I had to explore. Finally, on our journey to Laos I was able to check off "massive overland journey" on my SE Asian traveler checklist. And what a journey it was!



I had yet to take a train in Thailand, so we opted for the overnight train from Bangkok straight up through Isaan to the friendship bridge with Laos near Vientiane. We bought tickets for the second class sleeper section of the train. We started our journey happily with some Leo beer and sub-par fried rice I purchased on the train. After we had been traveling for an hour or so, our seats were made into beds and we all scurried away into our berths. This is where it became less fun. While lying in bed on your paper thin mattress you close your eyes to the bright lights streaming in through the bright green curtains. And then you start to notice that the swaying of the train becoming more and more vicious with each second. The banging sounds become louder. You begin to wonder how often trains get derailed in Thailand. Is that a good noise? After eleven hours of this, you end up at the Laos-Thailand border, safe and sound and only $20 lighter.



After making it across the boarder we quickly found ourselves a guesthouse to stay in. For $5 a piece the three of us shared a dorm room on the top floor of our guesthouse. The place was pretty minimalist but clean. The best part of the room was the spacious patio with chairs to sit in and read and a nice view overlooking the rooftops of Vientiane. The perfect place to watch the sunset later that night.



I had heard that Vientiane was a lackluster city. Not much to see, not much to do, nothing to write home about. We were very pleasantly surprised with how much we enjoyed Vientiane. True, the scenery and architecture in Vientiane look dull compared to the rest of Laos, but the relaxed pace, good food, and friendly people more than made up for it. We decided to start our Vientiane sightseeing with a bike ride to the most notable religious building in the city, That Luang. That Luang was built on top of an ancient Khmer site. The original stupa was plundered and destroyed by the Chinese in the late 1800s (the gold in it was ripe for the taking after the city had been raided by the Siamese and subsequently deserted in 1828). The current golden spire was rebuilt in the 1930s. Soon after we started our bike ride we realized that Erin did not really take well to bicycles. Thus, we set off on foot. Our sweaty hike brought us out of town and up to the Patouxai. The Patouxai is more or less the Arch de Triomphe of Vientiane. This sign says it all:



I'm impressed by their honesty. I didn't think it was THAT much of an eyesore.



Finally we reached our destination:


Not as well kept up as similar religious monuments in Thailand, but still very beautiful.

We also passed some interesting examples of Soviet architecture.





And realized that street signs in this communist country have private sponsors. Strange.



Our evening in town was very relaxing. For dinner, Dave and I were excited to go to a French brasserie and sink our teeth into steaks. Please get used to my raving about the food in Laos, it will continue. The French colonizers left behind a fantastic food legacy. I was in heaven with the delicious pastries and superb baguette sandwiches. Although I typically try to eat the cuisine native to the country I visit, I really couldn't help myself in Laos. I ate much more Western food than I typically do. I made up for it with a Laotian cooking class on my last day in the country.



After dinner we wandered along the Mekong, eating banana-chocolate roti and drinking Beerlao Dark. Off to a good start and only one day in.