How the heck do you say Vientiane?

Very carefully. and for those of you who don't know, the "s" at the end of Laos is silent.
First, second and third impressions of Laos would be something like falling in love. How different it is from Thailand though its just next door! Vientiane has quaint touches of Paris...wide strolling boulevards, baguettes and brie at all the market stalls and what do you know...its own little Arc de Triomphe which is called Patuxai. We climbed up it...whew! and saw a gorgeous view of the city.

Two great things we've discovered about Laos is that their language is so similar to Thai (most people can speak and understand Thai) so we are already funcional. And, Beer Lao (the national beverage) is spectacular. We thought that there was not going to be a very cool music scene in Laos but last night we were pleasantly surprised at a place called Music House which looked dark and scary from the outside but full of laser lights and drunk Laotians dancing on the inside. That house band seriously rocked so hard that i found myself even enjoying their Bon Jovi and Eagles covers. Many thanks to the silly, sarcastic Swedes who brought us there. There seem to be many Scandanavians in this part of the world and i'm glad. Something else that there are a lot of here...mosquitos. and the ones near the Mekhong river are like no other. They are rabid and their appetites cannot be sated. Hilary and i bathe in bug repellent daily as well as sunscreen (which just doesn't seem to work for me.)

So yesterday we checked out the Laos National Museum which very thoroughly recounted the history of Laos (starting at pre-history!) which was a long journey in a not-very-air-conditioned building. There was an exhibit up about a guy who worked for the Dutch East Indian Company and had come to Laos in the 1640s. Very interesting to read his journals and see the perceptions of Laos at that time. I also found the section about French colonization and corvee quite disturbing. We learned a bit about America's "secret war" in Laos towards the end of the Vietnam War. Most of the sign labels condemned the "American oppressors and their puppets" which i think is a pretty adequate description of what was going on. Looking at pictures of people disfigured by agent orange and landmines really brought the point home. Even to this day, there are still so many unexploded "bomblets" and "bombies" which are deceivingly cute words for such horrifying things. I found it interesting that the communist Pathet Laos built their headquarters in caves near the border with Vietnam and even managed to construct underground cities with schools, stores, cave meeting rooms and such.

We also made merit at the oldest surviving temple in Vientiane (Wat Sisaket). Most of the temples in the city were destroyed during a war with Thailand so it is quite an anomaly. This temple was full of awesome murals and the walls around the sim (hall) were filled with little niches holding tiny Buddhas. I made merit for my sister who has been sick (I love you AMY and i hope you are getting better) by lighting two yellow candles and exactly three incense sticks, praying and bowing my head to the ground three times. But we didn't spend much time here as it was mid-day and blazing hot.


Vientiane has quite the scene for international food. Of course we enjoyed our scrumptious French pastries and cafe au laits every morning. We had Indian, Mexican and Chinese food in just two days. However, we haven't had a chance to try Lao food. We've gathered that a lot of it is similar to Thai food but there are two very special things that we want to try when we get to Luang Prabang: a kind of watercress vegetable and river moss. If you don't already know, Hilary, my roommate is absolutely addicted to seaweed. I mean she buys something called "Big Sheet" which is, literally just a huge piece of seaweed. She eats it like crazy so you could imagine how her eyes lit up the moment she heard about river moss. We also want to try a Laos salad made of mashed up bananas, chili and other spices.

Today we made it to Vang Vieng which is like a paradise in the mountains. We hear there is plenty of tubing down the Mekhong river, spelunking and hiking. Here is a view from our hotel room:
Wish you were here.