its hard to believe that its been another month already in thailand. I find myself in laos for a few days, at the mercy of a internet cafe who's computers decide randomly when to let me capitalize. not that it really matters.
Vientiane, the sleepy little capital of the people's democratic republic of laos, is only a couple hours bus ride away from udon and so made for the ideal little getaway - a vacation within my vacation. i arrived to the sounds of rockets flying off into the rainy skies - a tradition dating back centuries, the rockets a kick off to the rainy season, carrying with it the wishes of the farmers of this small country in a prayer for rain. well, they got it. the downpours keeps my toes wet, but the temperature low, so while I can't really take any pictures, i don't mind it too much.
really though, this is the quietest national capital I have ever been in. To try and put the city in perspective, udon is a sleepy little town compared to bangkok. vientiane is a sleepy little village compared to udon. it may have more people, but fewer cars and in a bit of a paradox, tons more foriegners (its a capital - so all of the country's NGOs are based out of here). Its a bit misleading...you see a lot of cafes and restaurants, but not even a few minutes out of town you are back in one of the least developed countries in the world. another illustration - flying to a city north of here called luang prabang will take only 40 minutes. taking a bus on the roads here will make that trip 11 hours long!
I guess so far, in my assessment of 20 hours here, the best thing about this city - and something you won't find really even in bangkok - are that there are loads of bakeries. you can thank the french for that - so by some odd circumstance of fate, I found myself consuming my first french pastry in months in laos of all places.
The food here also takes some hunting around for bargains. the western restaurants can easily cost you nearly 60,000 kip for a meal and a beer, where eating at the riverside food stands will still run you more than 30,000. But keep hunting and you can stumble on the night stalls where you can fill your belly for just 4,000 kip. That's basically a 26,000 kip foriegner surcharge.
As a little sidenote, but keeping with the food track, the other night my friend Pi Phoon made the absolute spiciest dish i have ever had in my life. ever. the name of the dish translates to forest curry and its basically stewed meat and red curry. but something in it transformed my indomitable human spirit and love for mankind into a wimpering little bitch. I will never forget it for as long as i live.
Yo Jacob,
Just catchin up on the blog, glad to see you got to kick it in style on the moto-bike! That looks like a blast and hope you are doin well my friend!
~Randall
Posted by: Birdman | May 23, 2008 at 11:44