Vientiane, Laos – February 9th – 12th, 2017

Besides a trippy bus ceiling and confusion over the public bus which takes you into town (typical), the trip from Thakhek to Vientiane was uneventful (dancing for joy!). Now in downtown Vientiane, our next job was to find our hotel. Google and MapsMe turned out to be wrong (typical again) and the several groups of Laos people couldn’t be bothered to help us (typical again again). An hour later we found the place and were annoyed to find the receptionist was having an identity crisis – he believed he was a milk man (attempting to milk us for money). Learning from our Battambang, Cambodia police debacle, we settled on paying a couple bucks more than our online booking and vowed to use outside vendors for everything else (bike rental, bus tickets to Luang Prabang, laundry, etc.). It turned to be a good thing too since we found a woman a couple of blocks away who we were more than happy to give our business to. She arranged everything for us, with much less commission than our hotel milk man! After getting our errands out of the way, we splurged on pizza, bruschetta, and wine – oh, the luxuries of a tourist town!

The next day, we rented bicycles and cycled around Vientiane. First stop was the Vietnam Embassy to arrange our visas, which were ready for pick-up the same day (for a fee of course). The rest of the day we wandered the city, riding through quiet backstreets, and stopping at a couple (3) coffee shops and Buddhist temples along the way. Although Vientiane is the capital city of Laos, it is surprisingly small (pop. 750,000), and feels more European than Asian. They even have their own Arc de Triomphe (called the Patuxai Arch)! Although the way we stopped at the COPE Visitors Center where we learned about the effects of unexploded ordinances (UXO) in Laos. So apparently, it wasn’t just Cambodia that the US bombed between 1964-1973. During the “Secret War on Laos” the USA dropped about 2.5 million tons of cluster bombs, of which approximately 30% did not explode on impact – leaving approximately 80 million sub-munitions waiting to explode. I’m sure you can infer the problem here… post-war (after 1973) about 21,000 innocent people have been injured or killed in Laos due to hidden UXOs which scatter the countryside. In addition to not knowing anything about the US bombing of Cambodia or Laos prior to this trip, we were also shocked to discover that the US remains one of the only countries to refuse to sign the Cluster Munitions Coalition treaty preventing the use, construction, and stockpiling of cluster bombs. Ug… depressing.   

Temples and monasteries around Vientiane.

COPE visitors center and biking around Vientiane.

The following day, we rented bicycles again and went to a local vegan buffet for lunch. Since it was all you can eat (aka all you can hold down), we stuffed our faces before continuing riding to Houey Ho Vocational Training Center for Women. Here, we learned about their training program to teach women from surrounding villages how to sew and weave. We also dyed our own silk scarves using traditional techniques and dyes from natural products. Andy made a red scarf dyed with stick lac resin (resin from insects) and mine was yellow from jackfruit. They turned out really nice (spoiler alert: we intend to give them to our Grandmas). After a necessary fruit shack stop, we made it back downtown in time for the Asian aerobics class on the riverfront! Andy was such a great sport: after dying scarves with a bunch of women all afternoon, he enthusiastically participated in a hilarious Zumba-esque workout lead by two very flamboyant men. The workout was surprisingly difficult (mostly because of our complete lack of dance skills and coordination) and our cheeks got just as much of a workout from smiling and laughing as our bodies did. The locals also got a kick out of us.

Dying class at Houey Ho Vocational Training Center.

Before departing on the night bus to Luang Prabang the next evening, we did a stair workout on the riverfront boardwalk, ate Indian food, got Laos massages (there is a good possibility that both of our masseuses were transgender – not that it matters, they were very friendly and gave great massages), and spent several hours at an herbal sauna. The gender specific saunas were powered by a wood fire which boiled hot water infused with lemongrass and miscellaneous herbs into small wooden rooms where you sweat excessively while rubbing your body with a salt scrub. In between sweat sessions, you pour cold water over yourself and drink hot tea. It took us a while to figure out (we had to watch the locals), but the experience was incredible! Now thoroughly relaxed, it was time to re-enter the hell of Asian bus transport. Stay tuned for more bus fun – overnight edition.   

Trippy bus ceiling (upper left), view from our hostel (upper center), 4-in-1 coffee for men, "Strengthen the power of sex and sexual relationships long time" (upper right), and our workout class (bottom).