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Day 06 - Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003
Vientiane - Vang Vieng
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| 7:00 alarm, showered and hopped in a tuk-tuk ($5 round trip) to see That Luang - the big gilded stupa, very important religiously to Lao people, pretty much deserted at 8 am but with signs of construction everywhere in preparation for the Full Moon festival (in a couple weeks; last night was the first sliver of new moon and the beginning of Ramadan). Many strings of gold and white lights being hung all over the stupa; booths and bandstand being put up outside the walls. Dodo put a dollar in the donations box for the temple nearby, which was still being built and under lots of scaffolding with workmen on the roof. |
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| Back to Khop Chai Deu for coffees and then we packed up, checked out, bought baguettes, and got in an A/C van to Vang Vieng. About 9 of us falang total, plus a very good driver, one bathroom/coke break, and wonderfully scenic views of water buffalo - big gray cows with horns - and loads of school kids in uniforms, 2 to a bicycle often; a few big Simpsonesque manufacturing plants with chrome tanks and silos, and lots of tiny towns. We passed several canals and Ang Nam Ngum, a big artificial lake with little islands -- two of which are still used as prisons -- and then got into hillier country, with tight curves (one of them featuring a lot of spirit houses, just like the mountain curves in South America with lots of crosses) and the karsts pale blue in the distance. We got there in less than 3 hours, booked in at the hotel where the bus let us off (Malany Guesthouse, with a big, lovely 2nd floor terrace) and had a fab lunch at the End of the World Café. A sublime sweet shake made of coffee and banana. Tofu laab, or larb tofu, the veg version of the traditional dish, mixed marinated tofu, chilies, mint, onions, and chopped runner beans - spicy, yummy, a bit like vegan ceviche. The traditional sticky rice is served in individual lidded baskets, and you pinch off a ball of rice with your fingers and use it to pick up the laab. Claire and Ruth both had tofu stir-fries with coconut, ginger, pumpkin, and lovely veggies. Then we all sauntered over to the riverside, took photos of the almost-too-scenic sights: a bamboo footbridge, fishermen throwing a net from their boat, girls in pink innertubes, black and white ducks, a huge magenta dragonfly (these were all over by the water), the light on the river and the unearthly karsts rising in the background. |
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| Midafternoon in Vang Vieng (hot! But much cleaner air and the most gorgeous views of karsts - big steep cliffs like a Chinese painting) -- Claire, Ruth and Dan decided to go tubing, but Dodo was too tired, so she stayed back at the guest house to lounge and drink free Nescafe on the terrace. It turned out to be too late to go tubing, so C, R and D swam near the bamboo bridge, being splashed by laughing, naked children. They got back around 5:45 and while they showered, Dodo finished reading her book, "Titus Alone" and left it on the terrace for other tourists (a fat white man wearing only blue shorts had earlier asked her if she had any books she was done with). |
| We left ~6:45 for dinner, wandered past entirely too many pizza places on the central street of Vang Vieng. No map or write-up in Dodo's book. |
| Dinner at the Organic Farm restaurant was lavish and excellent (for a total of 126,000 kip, less than $12.60 since the exchange rate was 10,400 not 10,000) - 2 orders of soft-rice-paper spring rolls, one tofu satay appetizer, crispy fried mulberry leaves (ordered as a starter, it came last, but it was very interesting; a bit Dr. Seuss. Ruth and Dodo felt like caterpillars eating the big crunchy leaves) and 3 orders of Harvest Curry, a spicy peanut-coconut soup with tofu, potato, other veggies; 2 sticky rice; Dan ordered a vermicelli-veg salad. Couple beer Lao, couple smoothies, water, and Dodo had 2 glasses of starfruit wine. |
| 9:30 Dan was bushed so went to bed. Ruth, Claire and Dodo ambled up to the north end of our street (pitch dark almost, out of pizzeria zone), browsed the rice paper paintings shop and went in the yard of the Wat (one statue had a bird body and feet with a nude female torso and face, very fantastical and unbuddhist looking) and walked over to the river and partway out on the bamboo bridge in the dark. Being bitten by unseen insects. Turned back, walked along market (2nd road). At the north end of town there's an ugly 8-storyish hi-rise hotel? Condo? building, not a Miami beach hotel or anything, blunt white stucco with no advertising sign or glitz, but still a dismal sight. And at least one more possible hotel like that, not big by US standards at all but massive compared to the rest of VV, was being constructed. Maybe in 10 years it'll be an awful tourist-trap. Already they sell Pokemon toys at the market and watch a lot of TV. Both the girl at the End of the World café and 2 little kids at back of the brush-painters shop were lying on mats on the floor, watching TV. And the majority of pizza places had TVs showing various Hollywood movies. |
| Ruth went to bed and Claire and Dodo had a round of G&Ts at a big corner beergarden; there were a few guys inside playing pool and a huge loud group of Anglos on the patio. They chatted until 11:30. Last call was clearly 11, they were asked to pay and a while later the lights were shut off, but they (and the group of Anglos) sat in the dark and kept talking for a while. |
| We decided to stay 2 more days in VV and take Halloween morning bus to Luang Prabang. |