Two Days in Laos
It’s been three months since I was in Hong Kong so I had to leave Thailand to renew my visa.
Usually I do a daytrip to Poipet in Cambodia which is a horrible place, but, being in the North of Thailand, Tik and I took the opportunity to spend a day and a half in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos.
I was actually quite nervous about travelling there. I’d heard that, just like Cambodia, there are no ATM machines in the country so I had to carry cash with me. The Cambodian border is disgusting; full of pickpockets, touts, child prostitutes, dead babies, amputees and some of the most deformed people alive. I was expecting similar in Laos and was delighted by how wrong I was.
The border crossing itself was uneventful, but safe. The visa booths actually has reassuring signs on them stating ‘No Corruption’ although it didn’t specify if this referred to the staff or the immigrants. We took a songtaew from the border into central Vientiane which took about 30 minutes and cost us only 50 baht each (about 80p).
According to Tik, the Laoatians are similar in appearance and attitude to the countryfolk in the North East of Thailand. They are friendly, family-oriented and lead simple, non-ambitious lives. They too celebrated the new year and we got wet in the back of the songtaew.
I’m not sure if it was a Laoatian idea but we noticed many men wearing bras over their t-shirts, and wearing darker clothes - unlike Thailand where bright clothes are the norm. Laotians also use water bombs which are apparently banned in Thailand.
Shortly before 4pm Tik and I arrived at the Inter Hotel. The hotel came highly recommended by my friend Mylo but from the outside it looks pretty shabby. How wrong our first impressions were…
We checked into the best room of the hotel. It was incredible. The room (and the hotel) was decorated with tasteful Asian artworks, there was enough room to install a bowling lane if we’d have wanted to. We had a corner room with views overlooking the Mehkong river and down the street which hosted the new year celebrations. It was the nicest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in. We got the room, breakfast and 4pm late checkout for 1800 baht (less than 30 quid).
The hotel restaurant was fantastic. A meal of fresh homemade soup, salad, sizzling New Zealand beef, vegetables, ice-cream and Lao coffee came to $12 US. At 4pm Tik and I were hungry and should really have just ordered a snack but the tempation to make the most of the cheap food was too much. We ate far too much, ended up in bed trying to sleep off our bloatedness at about 7pm and got a cool 11 hours of sleep.
The following morning we woke early to enjoy a tasty cooked breakfast in our room and strolled over the road to the Mehkong. The Mehkong is a phenomenal river, flowing from China and into Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. It was fascinating to see how shallow it currently is. The centre of the river was a large beach and it would require a phenomenal amount of water to cover that. I’d love to return when it fills again.
We didn’t need much of a map to get round however I did find it amusing that every set of traffic lights was actually displayed on the map. The entire capital city doesn’t seem to have more than 20.
Vientiene itself is very small and it took us less than 4 hours to visit every attraction. The city itself is very backward, with few paved roads. Frustratingly all the restaurants I wanted to visit were closed for the new year but it’s a good excuse to come back.
Laos was colonized by the French and there are still remnants of the era in some architecture, the odd boulevard and the french bread.
Vientiene has it’s own smaller version of the Arc De Triomphe in the north of the city. It has a morning market wich we visited which was similar to Phnom Pehn’s Russian market - selling a disporportionate number of VCD’s and DVD’s. It has a night market we never got to, and a number of Temples which we walked around.
Aside from its high quality coffee. Laos is known for it’s strong Lao Beer and french dining. Although we couldn’t find any restaurant which was open today we returned to the hotel where we knew we’d get great food and service.
My short visit has really encouraged me to return to Laos again. Tik and I are planning to head to Luang Prabang at the end of the year.
Click Here to see our Vientiane Photos
