Laos- a new territory

The book says to pronounce it “Wien-chang”—but no one seems to. Vientiane is the capitol of Laos just across the Mekong River from Nong Khai. The new Friendship Bridge makes it easy to go back and forth. Laos’ colonial past as part of French IndoChina is evidenced in the wide, tree-lined boulevards with circular intersections and fountains that no longer have water and are overgrown with moss and weeds.

Mom and I arrived in Vientiane a little before noon. It was a long morning getting across the border- much slower than we expected. To our good fortune, our taxi driver just happened to drop us off at a Scandinavian bakery. Alas, we finally got the long awaited pastry shop. After indulging in bread, butter, jam, cheese, and cappuccino we were ready to explore this new country. (Earlier reference--Lonely Planet described the French pastry shops which we failed to find, see Overnight Train to Ubon Ratchathani and Traveler's Nightmare.)

It didn’t take us long to realize that this was a special place- at least for our interests. There was one boutique after the next beautifully displaying both new and old silk and cotton scarves, wall hangings, bags, and much more almost all made from Laotian villagers. We were in the meca of fabric. (You can see above with our displayed purchases just how much we were enthralled. It was hard to resist it all.) Going from one store to the next always keeping the store clerks busy with opening every piece and showing us some of their finest, we never got bored. And when we were tired (which came easily with some many fabrics to look at) we just got a massage- that is a Lao massage, one of the best things that has ever happened to me. We soon learned that this was the best deal in town- for just one hour it cost $4, and this was no shabby massage- we got a special outfits, a shower, tea, and deluxe relaxation. And once again we found a nice little guesthouse to stay in.

Here is Mom enjoying a foot massage- one of the three we had in two days.

One thing we were not expecting in Laos was all the tourists. For the past week and a half we had been one of the few foreigners around always blantantly standing out. You would think after being surrounded by unfamiliarity we would embrace these fellow Westerners, but in fact it was the opposite. We observed that tourists rarely socialized with other foreigners, and we were no different. I have to admit I didn’t like being amongst all the tourists, but one benefit was the good restaurants. They had better cafes and sandwich shops than we can find in the States. We never saw one Lao restaurant, which was a shame for me. I was ready for street food again when we got back to Thailand.

Oh yeah, and if you ever go to Laos be sure to brush up on your basic math skills. Though they do take dollars and baht in many places, you will need to use some Kip and it does not come in small quantities. A meal will cost around 50,000 kip. And bargaining does not come easy, but it is well worth it to be prepared because they can get away with selling items at higher prices. With bargaining and converting between kip, dollars, and baht it is no wonder we needed a massage (at least that is what we told ourselves).