We're up early for our trip — a 5:45 a.m wake up call complete with a quick breakfast and ready to board the bus at 7:00 a.m. It doesn't arrive until 7:30 a.m. and already it's half full with passengers also heading to the Laotian capital. Up onto the ancient vehicle's roof go our bags, strapped down with a bit of netting. I figure that'll take care of the remaining ants who scoured around my bag last night...
We board. The locals flash us friendly smiles. Our bus driver pulls out, crosses the gravel airport runway to the other side of town and begins to head out towards Vientiane, honking his horn with gusto as he approaches each stop to let potential passengers know he's on his way and for them to scurry out of their homes ready meet him. It is slow going. After an hour of constant starts and stops, the bus is full. Riders have to sit on the rice sacks in the aisle. We've picked up a group of raucous Vietnamese lads from a cement factory and they sing in falsetto voices while accompanying the music playing on the tinny speakers of their cell phones.
Jenn is under the weather with a cold and it seems our whole group has succumbed to the new diet, each one of us with a digestive issue of one manner of another. To be expected and thankfully, nothing is too serious. To combat the dust from the road coming through the open windows, Jenn rigs up her own makeshift face mask.
It's a five hour journey. The highway (?) is again dusty and dotted with potholes forcing our driver to sway back and forth on the road to avoid the worst of them. Mercifully, we stop halfway for a bathroom break and snacks. Fried bats on a stick anyone? Rat skewers? The food options on display by the ladies who surround the bus and flog their tasty treats are just so darn appealing. We're tempted, just for the experience, but we take a pass.
Can you spot the rat kebob below?
After noon, we arrive in Vientiane and are met by a smaller, private bus which whisks us to our hotel. Compared to our old 1950's beat up public bus, this suddenly feels deluxe and we realize how good we have it.
The afternoon is free for us to explore the city. First lunch at Joma, a North American style bakery and cafe with real sandwiches and cookies and mint ice tea. It's a welcome break of familiar food for our queasy tummies.
There's not a huge amount to see in Vientiane. As the capital of Laos, there's the presidential palace and the Patouxai, an arch shaped monument created as a tribute to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In fact, the road that connects the palace and the Patouxia is a very much less busy and less wide version of the Champs Elysées and again reveals the French influence in Laos.
The real treat of our day is dinner at Makphet, one of the best restaurants in the city and run by the Friends International organization which recruits troubled youths to work in restaurants, help cook and learn a creative skill that keeps them off the streets and out of trouble. It is a great place with stylish decor and original Laotian influenced dishes. We love our mains and desert too and the best part is that Intrepid sponsors Makphet and our meal is paid for as part of our trip package. Double bonus!!
After dinner, there is time to visit the river with Thailand twinkling on the other side and take in the night market. Tomorrow we will say goodbye to laid back Laos, which has been very good to us, and head via plane for Vietnam and the city of Hanoi.
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