Laid-back Laos
Vientiane, Laos is the most laid-back capital city I’ve been to. After bussing to Bangkok, then going up through the Thai-Lao border (and getting ripped off by visa services), I finally made it here. And I’m glad I did. My guesthouse is right by the river, and I love it here.
Since Laos was occupided by the French for a while, it has a lot of French influence in its road names and architecture. This blend of styles is very interesting, and results in good French restaurants. There’s barely any traffic and the weather isn’t too hot, so I felt safe enough to rent a bike and explore today. (In Chiang Mai, I had a biking horror story. I don’t think I’ll rent a bike anywhere that has bad traffic again.) I found something very similar to Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, and it had great views from the top! I met some monks at the top and we talked about where we’re from. They were really interested in what I thought about Vientiane.
It’s incredibly cheap here. But it didn’t feel like it at first- a can of soda here is 3,000! Kip that is. I feel weird walking around with thousands of kip worth of notes in my purse. In fact, with all the money in my bank account I’m officially a millionare!
Surprisingly, I’ve found a really good Swedish pizza place here. No where near as good as real Swedish pizza (the pizzas aren’t square here, and where’s the bearnaise sauce?), it still satisfied my cravings and made me very happy. 🙂 There’s also a delicious Scandanavian bakery.
The only thing disrupting the peace here is the multitude of tuktuk drivers competing for your service. On almost every major corner, they sit and wait and yell “hello miss, tuktuk? Tuktuk?” when you pass. And when you do take one, they rip you off big time. But I can usually haggle the prices down 300% (and still end up overpaying).
Tomorrow, I’m leaving Vientiane and going to see the stunning river scenery of Vang Vieng!
And because I didn’t add it last time, here’s an elephant pic: 
Tags: Laos, Travel
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