Laos Trip - Vientiane City

Vientiane City (Day 4)
Woke up early the next day to have our breakfast before catching our early bus ride to Vientiane City. Told Tracy how exciting it was the night before just to make her regret for not joining us. She doesn’t seem to care and said I must have enjoyed myself with all the western ladies… haha.. Anyway, we chose a restaurant over looking the mountains for breakfast. A few of us are reluctant to go but too bad we have already purchased the tickets. Vang Vieng was really a nice place to be at. Slow and peaceful town in daylight and suddenly turned into a nightlife heaven when the sunsets… Bid farewell and Vientiane here we come!

A little info about the city - Vientiane, the capital of Laos, has a population of 200000 and is one of southeast Asia's most laid-back capitals, with relatively little traffic in the streets. Vientiane has no tall buildings and exudes a special aura that combines Lao, Chinese, Thai, French, Soviet and American elements. The city is located in a fertile plain on a broad curve on the northeastern bank of the Mekong River. King Setthathirath officially established it as the capital of Lan Xang in 1560. When Lan Xang fell apart in 1707, it became an independent kingdom. In 1779, it was conquered by the Siamese general Phraya Chakri and made a vassal of Siam. Later it became the capital of Laos under the French protectorate in the late 19th century. It has continued as the capital until today.

Back to our trip. We hopped on to our bus at 9.50am. The VIP bus tickets we purchased aren’t so VIP at all!! Luggage has to be place on top of the bus rooftop and it wasn’t air conditioned! … Hmmm… felt a little bit being conned here. The bus was filled with all western tourist and we’re the only Asians. The ride took us approximately 3 hours plus to reach Vientiane city. The journey wasn’t as rough as the road we got here from Luang Prabang which is a relief to us. As the temperature rises and we felt the heat, we know that we’re gonna reach the capital soon. The ride stopped at a bus station with tuk-tuks drivers welcoming us. Each saying “City for 10,000 KIP”. We thought we are supposed to be in the city already but we weren’t. There are a couple of westerners arguing to the driver about the last stop but the driver just ignored them. Hmmmmm… ok… Welcome to the city I thought to myself.

Anyway, showed the tuk tuk driver of where we’re heading and we hopped in. This isn’t the small tuk tuk we usually see in Thailand or Cambodia. This is the XL size. Our tuk-tuk was filled with 13 people, packed like sardines while the hot sun blazing down on us. Luckily it wasn’t far. We noticed that city people are rich. You could see the Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen Beetle on the road. Even GTRs like Skyline and Fairlady zooms by us. As usual, we started looking for accommodation. Most of the guesthouses we walk into are either too expensive or fully-booked. We then suggest the ladies to sit down for lunch while the guys continue searching. We finally found a newly opened guesthouse that costs us 150,000 KIP per night. Everything seems to be good in this guesthouse except for the care taker lady. She seems a bit weird to us. Often giving us a strange smile and then suddenly an eerie laugh. Her eyes were as if telling us to “enjoy the night here, I’m gonna make your stay a ‘memorable’ one”. Oh no.. What have we got into?!?!? We braved ourselves and stayed for a night. Must find another hotel tomorrow!

Threw our backpacks in the room and off we went city touring. Since it was already late in the noon, we could only able to visit the Victory Gate. Also known as The Patuxai, formerly the Anousavary or Anosavari Monument, is a monument in the center of Vientiane built in 1960. It is an arch with an observation deck on top, built to commemorate Lao who had died in struggle for independence from France. Then we went to the Mekong river. This is where most of the tourist stayed where restaurants, pubs and massages could be easily found. Ah Pao and I sat in one of the river bank restaurant enjoying our beer while the others went for massage again. The Mekong river now with some construction going on wasn’t a nice sight. It seems they are narrowing the river to make way for more land. With trucks moving in and out, dusts are flown everywhere.

After they have finished their massage session, we went for dinner. Dinner was good as we ordered fish, pork, seafood soup, vegetables, springs rolls and of course more beer. After the dinner, we took a stroll down the town looking for a pub. Not much sighted and we head back to the riverside again. We went to a pub called Rooftop Bar over looking the river. In this bar we found loads of freelancers if you get what I mean. KP was eyeing on each and everyone of them…maybe hoping to catch one… haha.. too bad they are not in the looks department. After drinking a beer tower, it’s time to call it a night.

Day 5.
It was a good morning as the beer we had last night does the trick. Lucky the care taker lady did not do anything to us. Ha ha. We had pork noodles for breakfast along with Lao coffee. Then we packed our belongings and decided to stay at the riverside for our last night. Last night means a more comfy stay. We all agreed to treat ourselves on a USD12 per pax hotel called the Riverine Hotel. 2 times more expensive than our usual stays. After checking in we ask for a tuk-tuk to bring us to Buddha Park. They ask for 60,000 KIP per person. Now that is expensive. Then they lowered to 40,000 and we still rejected them. Butt was clever enough then to ask the hotel counter. They could bring in a private van for a whole day tour at USD40. Then the tuk tuk driver came to offer us at 20,000. Hahaha. What a huge difference but too late. Of course we’ll take a private van with air condition. We went to Wat Sisaket, morning market, Pha Tat Luang, Buddha park and ended in a wet market. Was pretty tired that day.

Again they went for massage and again Sylvia, Pao and I drank beer waiting for them. Dinner was the same restaurant the night and ordered almost the same dishes. Only difference is that the dinner is my treat as I wanted eberyone to enjoy our last night in Laos. I wanted to thank this good bunch of friends tagging along in the trip to Laos and making it a memorable one. We’re on our way back to KL the next morning.

So where to next? Chiang Mai as suggested by Tracy ?