Vang Vieng and Vientiane

4/04 (Fab)
We leave Luang Prabang for a 6 hours journey to Vang Vieng which we have chosen as a stopover on the road to Vientiane. The journey is ok, Val manages to get a bit of sleep, I don't but I do enjoy the landscape rolling down. This part of Northern Laos is made of mountains and valleys. It's beautiful but a slight haze hangs everywhere. This is due to all the uncontrolable and non-ecological slash-and-burn foret exploitations (answering the Chinese and Thai demand for precious wood). The sun is bright but we can only guess its shape throught the smog. The road is very windy, sometimes quite spectacular. Unlike Vietnam, Laos is very peaceful and the driving also. This makes the trip a bit more comfortable. We get to Viang Vieng northern bus station. Sharing a tuk-tuk with an Aussie guy, we make it to the town centre. My first impressions are very mixed. I spot already a high number of late teenagers, early 20's. It looks like a seaside resort coupled with a theme park. We manage to find a cheap guesthouse (paper thin walls!), exposed electrical cables. There is even a note explaining that to avoid electric shocks, power should be switched off at all times!!! And the bathroom power/light switch is the least protected!!!!!!!! We settle down anyway and moments later we are discovering the town.
One thing that strikes us the most is that numerous bars, sometimes one next to each other, play DVDs of Friends in loop. If one's willing to, I'm sure it might be possible to watch the entire collection in one day!!! Young Western people are lying on bamboo beds around a little table where they sip beer and do not talk to each other from early morning (ok lunch time as they're hangover) until late afternoon when they go tubing, then start again in a different bar or restaurant over a movie (cheap american blockbuster that is, no Woody Allen or Cassavetes here). We are baffled!!! Van Vieng seems to have lost its soul to mass youth tourism...But the nature is beautiful around here and because we've already seen Friends many times (!!), we go and explore around, try to get to a cave (it's closed) but we enjoy the walk in the rice fields. In town, we are lucky to witness a Baci celebration, this is a traditional ceremony to restore family and community cohesion. All members start with a prayer and offerings. Then a meal is prepared by all and few drinks shared until late at night. I guess this ritual has even more sense here than anywhere else in the country! Meanwhile we make the decision to leave tomorrow for Vientiane. We also realise that the Lao new year's celebrations will shut all the country administrations for a week but we absolutely need to get our Indian visas done here.
Dinner in town over the Nam Song river and Val gets a crepe with Nutella from one of the trolley in the street. Whomever has seen crepes being made would have laughed as much as we did (discreetly!) when the guy took a little ball of paste or batter, flattening it like a pizza base and fried the thing with chocolate in a table spoon of margarine and oil in a wok-like pan!!!!!! Val gets the fat dripping thing and we taste it: a little fishy, a little gamey, very fat and a vague taste of chocolate in the background...We just laugh!!! We manage to sleep despite the music blasting from bars around the hotel!

5/04
We get up early and get ready for a boat trip up the Nam Song river for our first and last morning in Vang Vieng. The nature is stunning, the small river (very low water) overlooked by limestone peaks, a beautiful countryside. It feels like the Halong Bay on land. We wish we had a bit more time to explore the back country on a bike, but the trip on a small narrow river boat makes our day. The river is also used for fishing and collecting waterweed by the locals, cows and buffalos grazzing around, kids are playing in the water. It's a bit of a naive landscape and nothing seems to trouble the serenity of the place...until we see a stream of 18 years old going down the river on their tractor inner tubes, some of them obviously very drunk if not more (it's 10.30am!), and around a river bend, I experience a day time revival of a scene from Apocalypse Now. Our boat goes under thin bamboo bridges connecting one bank to another with a dozen of 'River Bars' providing booze by the barrel to hords of drunks, very high and dangerous swings over shallow water (below are some very sharp rocks) and the music is blasting our eardrums in a complete cacophony. I CANNOT believe what I see and try to think of what the locals make of Westerners. Most of them have never left their village and have obviously not met other tourists than these ones. I feel very depressed when I see what the world is sometimes and even a bit horrified...There is no sense whatsoever of respect to local traditions (discretion, reserve and moral behaviour especially in a Buddhist place). But I don't blame the people from here. They only answer a demand that's probably growing, more and more since Van Vieng is on the backpacking map. In one of the poorest country on earth, every dollar is a step to hopefully a better future.
Back in town we pack and get a quick lunch and take our bus to Vientiane. It's a bit of an experience, a crammed small bus, no air con as promised but all windows and doors opened, no leg room at all...a bendy road most of the time but we made it!! 5 hours later we're in the Lao capital city, sweaty and tired. We walk around town with our heavy backpacks in the heat, to find an hotel, most of the guesthouses are full and we are wondering where we are going to sleep...finally we find a big guesthouse on the Mekong river, a noisy overpriced room full of mosquitoes...We go for a walk around, watch the sunset on the Mekong, eat, dicover briefly that Vientiane is a sleepy town, somehow a small city which feels provincial...surprising...We were expecting another one of those big busy South East Asian capitals, polluted, busy and full of touts and hassles!!! Here, the public pavement is often in a bad state, no light in many streets at night, some sewers opened, some dirt roads, no hasslers or people shouting at you in the streets: indeed puzzling for a capital city.

6/04
We decide to change accommodation but we need to go first thing to the Indian Embassy (two different locations, the first one now being the Ambassador private residence!). We go with a tuk-tuk, afrte walking in the ehat for few kilometres as the proper visa section is far out of town. We might be lucky and get our visa in few days before the holidays...tricky timing! We have to stay few days here waiting...Few hours later on the Lao/Indian rythm we check in the new hotel, the Saysouly guesthouse which we saw the night before and found the balconies very attractive. It is set on a side street near to the town centre. The room is very spacious and quiet, exactly what we need on the last floor with a big balcony overtlooking some shops and restaurants!! In the afternoon, we spend some time at the internet cafe in order to avoid the heat and to prepare our trip to southern Laos. On the way back, we discover that a few single ladies well dressed up are waiting for something at the corner of the street...and obviously not the bus!! We look at each other and smile... The city feels very suburban and quiet, somehow our little street seems to be the seedy centre!!!Cars, tuks tuks, clients, ladies and even young men dressed in woman's clothes all standing at the corner!!
We have dinner on a foodstall, a noodle soup, reminding us so much of our Hanoian time...Once in the hotel room, we spend a bit of time watching the sexy lady in red across the road waiting for her next sugar daddy, soaking the quiet ut hot atmosphere from our balcony, observing the shops owners closing down, people eating out, life at night. A languish female singing voice escapes the night bar next door...

7/04
After breakie in our local patisserie (oh, French croissants and pains au chocolat every morning here, not good for Val's waist), it's the start of a sightseeing day. Ventiane centre has few temples quite close one to each other. Our first destination is Wat Inpeng, a small temple, quite recent. Next, Wat Ong Teu, also recent. Not too interesting. We cross through the grounds of Wat Mixay where a primary school is. Visiting during a school day is a refreshing experience! The temple is closed but loads of guarlands decorate surrounding fence, and the stupas are all drapped in different vivid colours. Kids line up before leaving school and dispersing in an army salute. As most of the monuments are not opened during lunch time we go shopping a bit in the morning market Talat Sao. There is a modern mall in the middle of bamboo huts and stalls. You can find everything here. Clothes, shoes, mobile phones, washing machines, air con units etc. It is rather eclectic! Nice experience to watch people go about their daily business.
We walk to Wat Sisaket, the marvel of Vientiane. It contains a copy of the Prabang Buddha. Wat Sisaket dates back from the early 19th century and is the only temple that survived the Siam invasion of Lao in the early 1800's. The temple is surrounded by a roof-tiled cloister containing thousands of Buddha of different shapes and sizes in the wall niches.
The place breathes serenity. It is very quiet despite the big road nearby and at the time of visit, only a handful of tourists were present. Across the road, Haw Pha Keaw museum is in the former royal buddhist temple of the Presidential Palace. This place retains beautiful examples of relics of wood, stone, bronze, silver and gold buddhas but also holy fragments of doors and others. To emphasise on the holyness of the place, people still use the Wat to pray and make offerings (money). A bit like if the sacred objects in the British Museum where covered in notes and coins...It's a bit strange but very interesting. The brown color of the temple associated with the colours of the well maintained garden makes the visit enjoyable.
We have a late salad lunch, I have a Tam Maak Hung (green papaya salad). Well, never again! I can resist most of the spices but this is definitely HOT. And combined with the cuttlefish sauce (who has ever complained about the Nuoc Mam?) I'm blown...
It's now 4.30pm and we go hide in the A/C of our hotel room. The heat is now really present, maybe aeounds 38-39 degres (not so humid though) and we relax for a moment before going to watch the sunset on the Mekong River. It's beautiful to see the sun descending on the horizon, in a flaming red and light pink. Loads of local are here too, and they keep stopping on their motorbike to watch this. It is a romantic activity here. Some kids play down and the sandy strip that forms a sort of island in the middle of the river. On the other bank, Thailand feels as close as a stone throw (going to the beach is sooo tempting!). But the Mekong is very wide here, five hundred metres, maybe more... We have dinner across the street of a student residence (understand dormitories of dozens of boys in one building, girls in the other). They are all outside, chating up, relaxing. The meal tonight is Thai and not spicy! Phat Thai is 'de rigueur'! Bed time after another short walk.

8/04
We carry on visiting today. We want to see more temples and the main destination for buddhist celebration is That Luang. To get around we hire some bicycles. It is hot today but the light breeze cools us down when pedalling. Val is a bit uncomfortable at first but soon after she gains confidence and enjoys the ride. We make it safe to the temple (the city traffic in Vientiane is nothing compared to Vietnam!) which is also the residence of the Lao buddhist patriarch and is made of several buildings. None of them are old. We visit the only accessible part which is the main stupa, surrounded by smaller other stupas, witin a cloister, slightly Chinese in inspired. The whole monument is painted in gold, which is absolutely colourful under a bright sun and blue sky, but honestly, it is not very beautiful...However it is the most important religious monument in Laos and a national symbol (it is on every Lao official papers and seal) and where takes place the That Luang Festival (religious) where the place is completely decorated and filled with decorations, lights and candles.
We ride again to Wat Simuang. This place is very kitsch but extremely interesting. Here takes place a tradition of pagan rites alongside traditional rituals. This place is heavily frequented by devotees seeking answers...Worshippers attempt to lift a baby-size crude image three times over their head, success is an auspicious sign. Devotees whose wishes are granted must later return and appease the guardian spirit with offerings, like flowers, coconut or bananas. It is a real pleasure to observe them from our little corner and to enjoy some spirituality. The sacredness of the place, its busyness, the fervour is somehow pleasant and touching.Outside, the temple is surrounded by extremely colourful statues of animals, divinities and mythical figures.
We go for lunch in a trendy cafe, over cooled by the air con, where we have a salad and a sandwich...noodles are nice but once in a while a dear old club sandwich is a joy! We kill the afternoon relaxing as it's too hot to go anywhere. A[ril is the hottest month here and the heat is difficult! Val is deeply caught in a book, I nap, write. Late afternoon we cycle to a temple quite far out of town, Wat Sok Pa Luang, famous for its Lao herbal saunas. The temple is rather run down and does not offer any excitment. We are only lucky to witness a nun praying session and a few monks walking under the trees that surround the temple. The saunas are in huts in the middle of the woods and few garbage lay around...we head back to town, but the traffic is denser now and we're not having a great moment as nobody cares about cycles and we are not as powerful as motorbikes to go with the flow. Val is getting scared and I am getting quite nervous, fearing an accident. But we make it just safely to watch the sunset over the Mekong. It's different from last night and quite sublime. The sun is bright red and the reflections on the river are absolutely stunning. We both loved this ealk along the Mekong, dirt road, shops, food stalls, people around, the mighty river.
Dinner time at a foodstall in town, another walk around the sleepy town (except in our street cornber which is very busy tonight) and we have to pack as we're leaving tomorrow evening for the South.

9/04
Today is our last day in Vientiane: we relax, go for breakfast in our little cafe, (ah the little croissants), do some shopping, visit some bookshops, get new books, novels but also some books on Hmong culture, as we want to find out more abot those hill tribes. We walk along the Mekong and in the streets of the capital, wach people, women in their traditionnal skirts but still very modern in their ways of being, students chilling out, businessmen, shops keepers... The heat is becoming more and more unbearable, even at 10 am, it is such a harsh sun, it is going to be difficult in the South!!! After lunch, we go to sit in a nice air con cafe, eat some bananas cakes, do some web research and emails, reflect on our experience here...no culture shock really, no massive challenge, a slow pace, but for both of us the connection is less deeper here than in other places in South East Asia, we both feel a bit far away today, distant, as if disconnected from it all...maybe a certain tiredness as well in the trip? Who knows? We then go to the Indian embassy to get our visa...