Vientiane, Laos

Hello once again!

Once we were finally able to tear ourselves away from our cute little bungalow in Vang Vieng, we hopped on another bus and headed down to Vientiane, the capitol of Laos. This capital city definitely qualifies as one of the most laid back capitals I've ever been to. With less than 300,000 people and not much traffic, it was easy to see why. The city occupies the northern bank of the Mekong River, with Thailand just across the way. There really wasn't much to see in Vientiane, but we happily spent a couple days there sampling the foods and walking the streets. One of the most exciting finds was a small grocery store that caters to the foreigners who live and work in Vientiane at the embassies, etc. We were able to find peanut butter, great coffee, and whole grain bread! Sarah was stoked about the peanut butter, but I was even happier to find corn tortilla chips! Sweet! They were "Mexican style", and made in Thailand. Another great find was the Night Market. We were able to get a fantastic meal that filled both of us up for 11,000 kip -- about $1.40. The street was lined with stalls that had large bowls of many different types of dishes, from curries to steamed greens to cricket salads. You pointed at what you wanted, and they put it in a baggie and handed it over. All the locals were walking the market and picking up all their little to go bags to take home for the family. We sat on the curb and ate using our plasticware we took from our last plane flight. As we walked home to our hotel, we couldn't help but feel a little smug that we'd eaten a fantastic meal at a fraction of the cost of the meals other travellers were eating in the trendy restaurants.... We ended up eating here two nights in a row.

Sarah had been noticing a distinct chocolate-deficiency in her diet, so we did make use of the coffee shops to find a fantastic piece of chocolate cake along with some great coffee. Oh, and air conditioning.

The main tourist sights in Vientiane were both along a nice, 4km walk. The first stop was the Arc du Triomphe, in the style of the original in France, but with a nice Buddhist twist. The Arc was constructed in 1969 with concrete donated by the United States to build an airport runway. Many locals apparently call it the "vertical runway" for this reason.

The second place we visited on the walk was the Pha That Luang, the national stupa and the symbol of both the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty. The original was built in the 3rd century BC to enclose a piece of Buddha's breastbone, but it has been rebuilt several times since then -- most recently by the French in 1931. See the photos to get an idea of it.

We celebrated the 4th of July by getting up early and hopping on a plane to Siem Reap, Cambodia (site of the famous Angkor Wat temples). Back in Luang Prabang we found out about 2 for 1 tickets on Lao Airlines, so we took advantage of the deal and saved ourselves two days of bus riding for not much more than the bus tickets would have cost. More on temple trekking to come!

-Matt!