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Last Stop in Laos: Vientiane

Our main purpose in the Capitol of Laos was to get a visa for Vietnam. You can’t get in without it and it takes three days and 70USD to process. To get to Vietnam we were originally going to drive, or ride in a bus, but on our way down Laos we stared to hear horror stories about the bus trip. It was a 30 hour nightmare, complete with potential mudslides, curvy mountain roads and seats that would not allow you sleep. Well we had had one to many of those up until that point. We caved. We bought plane tickets from Vientiane to Hanoi. It would only be an hour long flight, so technically we gained 29 hours and lost a giant headache. From an economic standpoint, we thought it was a no brainer. So while we waited for our Visas, we tried to make the most of our last few days in Laos.

And it didn’t start well. Firstly, after we dropped our passports off to the Vietnamese embassy we trekked a few miles out of town to try to find our hostel. We found it on a busy intersection, with nothing surrounding it. We got to the unoccupied reception desk and rung the bell. Then rung it again. Then rung it again. Then went outside to the guy washing his car and tried to show him that we had a reservation, and he went back to his car. We went back inside and run the bell again. Finally we saw someone walking across the parking lot headed our direction. She came to the desk and took our papers and sorted us with a “room”. To get there, we walked up four flights of stairs past a countless number of rooms that seemed to be completely unoccupied, down a hallway at the end she opened a blue door that was our room. In it was a small fridge that was creaking. A TV that had no channels and a bed that had dirty sheets. Not to mention walls that seemed to have been smeared in shit not too long ago. We dropped our bags and quickly got out of there. We needed breathing room. We found a market that was worth wondering. And a restaurant worth eating at. It was the fried chicken sort, with ladies that come by restock your beer supply and even pour them for you. We got assistance from a guy sitting at the table across from us and he ended up becoming our friend for the meal. We stayed out as long as possible to avoid going back to the cesspool. We had no choice but to sleep there that night, but the next morning we were out. We had to find something better.

We found Sari 1. Which was only a minor step up in that they did not have poo walls. Just hard beds. However the guy who owned the place was a sweet heart and told us some good places to check out in town along with telling us what Popcorntime is. (hint: it’s free Netflix. Check it out.) Sari 1 also happened to be way better as far choices went. Right down the street was a rolly vendor who never rolled that made Laos Coffees in the morning. These are probably the best coffees we had ever had. Thailand has Thai tea, and Vietnam has their take on coffee which you will about later, but the Laotians take both of them and combine them into a plastic bag with lots of ice and do something to the drink to make it taste like coffee chocolate milk. They are supreme! It is also another thing we miss.

We kind of just wondered around Vientiane for three days. We took a bus out to the Buddha park, which is just a park chock full of different concrete Buddha statues. OId ones, new ones, small ones, big ones. Ones you can climb, others you can go into. It was kind of cool except for getting back and forth. The tuk-tuk drivers prey on our type (the uneducated to the area foreigner) and over charge for a short ride to the bus station. We get it Laos. You place everything way out of the way to capitalize on our dollars: Bus stations on the outside of town, buddha parks out in the country. I would do the same if I were you. But since I am not, I have to say, this practice is extremely annoying and grows old the first time. Ok, rant over. There were some very good night markets right down the street from us. Where all sorts of soups were proffered, along with giant glass containers of mini meat pies. Also there were sweet sesame fried donut type treats and spicy duck salads. Fried meat balls and fried noodles. It was like a night carnival for your mouth. And it was really fun.

On our last day we went to scope out a sight that we had been walking by since our arrival. This sight is called the Patuxai. It looks a lot like the arc d’triumph in Paris, except with less flair and more Asian inspired art. You are allowed to walk up to the top for a small nominal sum and get a nice view of the town. A funny fact about this structure is that all the concrete that it is made up of was donated by the USA. Only that that concrete was meant for airport runways. The Laotians did not want more runways so they made this nice piece of art? It started to rain while we were at the top, so we waited for it to come and go before we left. When we did, we headed back over to the Vietnamese embassy to collect our new visas. With those in hand we were now ready to depart to Hanoi the next day, but before we did, we need to catch some live music and beers at L’Atmosphere. A bar owned by an ex-pat French Man who we had befriended a few days before on a search for swing dance lessons. It was a party that night and we had a good time, meeting some locals and some dude from Berkeley, named Carl.

This left us with foggy heads the on the morning of the 14th of June. I think they cut the whiskey and rum with some other stuff around these parts because even when we would only have one cocktail, we would wake up in pain. Suppose it’s just a sacrifice you have to make. So with our headaches in tow, and after a quick breakfast at a French bakery, we caught a cab (for 50000 K?) to the airport to get out of Laos! We had a short one hour flight over to Hanoi and after clearing a jam packed immigration line with no hassles, we caught a cab for $2 to our Hotel. More on that next time. Stay tuned.