Vientiane - a lazy day - The first step ... South East Asia

April 14, 2016

Vientiane - a lazy day

Last night we had supper at Nazim's, an Indian restuarant serving Halaal food (there are two of them opposite each other in Chao Anou Road, the same street as our guesthouse). Lovely aloo and cumin and a dhal-based kofta with rice and a couple of garlic naan. A good change and very affordable. There are many other food options as well, including a number of French restuarants offering degustation menus starting from 700K - a bit much for a cycle tourist.

Food outside of Vientiane has been much more expensive than I had been expecting. In Vientiane it is still possible to get a fried rice dish for 15K or less while out in the country it is a struggle to get noodle soup at that price and mostly one will pay double that amount for a rice based dish. For lunch today we had some amazing crispy pork and kale on rice for 15K - as good or not better than anything I've had in Thailand. Accomodation in the country also seems expensive while there seem to be good affordable options here in Vientiane (although they still seem more expensive than in Thailand).

When my son and his wife were in Laos seven years ago, they were struck by the friendliness of the people and how cheap it was in both Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. Our experience has not been quite the same.

Perhaps Vientiane is a bit different because they are not so desparately dependant on falang tourists. Further north I get the impression tourists are veiwed as walking ATMs but here in the capital, where falangs seem less conspicuous, we seem to be treated as normal people.

Perhaps we are enjoying Vientiane because of the happy vibe that Pii Mai brings.

This morning after a breakfast of baguettes with tuna (for Leigh) and pork/pate/salad (for me) coming to 16K for both of them (I paid nearly four times that in Luang Prabang) we setoff for Pha That Luang via the Victory Gate

The stupa at Pha That Luang is somewhat short on style but the occasion was saved by a Chinese family roping us in to their family holiday pictures.

From leigh's FB post:And so we were wandering around Pha That Luang, and we were asked by a family to take a photograph of everyone, so we said, yes, we would take their photo. So they said, no, they want us in it too, we are all one big family. Eventually, they roped in another tall guy. Eventually, after many photos and many Happy New Years, we left them. ‪#‎specialmoment‬

By 11:30 we were hot to the point of boiling over and retired to a Lebonese restuarant diagnally opposite our guest house to watch the warmup to the day's Pii Mai festivities over a beer.

Then the lovely lunch mentioned above and back to the guesthouse to get some work done on tax returns etc.

The Wats are also very busy during Pii Mai and it is interesting that while we normally see mostly women at evening services, there have been many adult men taking part in the washing of the statues.

From Leigh's FB post:People, mostly in family groups (often in new matching outfits), go from Wat to Wat and sprinkle scented water on the buddhas, then annoint their heads, with the water. Some of the Wats are closed at the moment (I think to protect the floors) and a lot of the Buddhas are outside. The Wats that are open, are really wet inside.

Later this afternoon we strolled through the BIG party on the roadway above the Mekong and then through to the sand sculptures and the family oriented party on the river bank itself.

Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 1,385 km (860 miles)

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