Took a taxi from the Laos Immigration side of the Friendship Bridge to Vientiane, about 20km away. We had asked to be taken to the Boulichanh guest House on Lane Xang Ave, but he took us to another one. Obviously he was going to get a commission if we took a room there for a night. Which we did as it was the end of a tiring journey and late. The room was fine and Jeff talked them down from $15 to $10 for the night. Unfortunately the Guest House was way out of town so it was a fair walk to anything. But we walked to the center of town and had dinner at Le Provence, beside the fountain in the center of town. It’s a lovely restaurant but spendy. After that we found the Khop Chai deu bar and restaurant. A local ex-pat hang out which is packed every single night of the week.
Had a lovely walk along the Mekong river, eventually walking into the poorer end of town.
We rented a motorbike and biked around the city for a little. Got myself another motor bike burn on my right leg. Driving in Laos is crazy. There’s a third invisible middle lane that everyone uses to overtake, turn left, turn right, whatever they need to do. What with the third invisible lane and one way streets galore it’s challenging to ride around Vientiane. But it’s a lot easier than Chiang Mai.
Vientiane is a very dusty city. I’ve also noticed there seem to be a good number of NGO’s here. They’re the ones with the cars and trucks.
Found the JoMa café for breakfast. It does bagles and waffles which are very good. Unfortunately Jeff’s waffle order seemed to get lost in the kitchen and he ended up waiting ages for it. I was well finished my bagel and coffee by the time it finally arrived.
Our goal is to get a 60 day visa from the Thai consulate here in Vientiane. We missed the time to drop our passports in on Monday so dropped them in on Tuesday. Our next stop is Phonsovan and the Plain of Jars, but there’s no flight on Tuesday. We ended up getting a flight for Thursday and returning Saturday to Vientiane. Then take a train on Saurday from Vientiane to BKK, arriving Sunday morning.
Most evenings we end up at Khop Chai deu bar. The pitchers of beer there are only $1.50, way cheap.
One of the local strings of mini-marts is called Pimphone.
The town has 135,000 is the Capital of the province. But it’s more like a small countrytown in Ireland about 40 years ago.
Lao coffee with sweetened condensed milk is just delicious. The Full Moon Café for dinner. Quiet and relaxed. Big cusions on long benches, subdued lighting, very well placed paintings from local artists. Owned by the Laos wife of a local American NGO officer.
Tables at Full Moon have table settings in a basket, so it’s easy to set the table without having it already set. Had Indian curry with chicken and fried rice. Food is very good. The chicken was a little too prepared in exact bit size pieces. Jeff’s tasted better. It was a real chicken piece, skin and all. Done well and very tasty. Som taw was spicy but not too spicy. It also has a book exchange where you take a book and leave a book.
The temple is the playground for this little Laos boy
No comments:
Post a Comment