Day 66 (04/06/08): Vientiane, Laos
The day was spent in a pretty leisurely fashion. I had a good sleep in, my first decent one in days. I had been told that there wasn't much to do in this sleepy capital, and so Garth and I booked a sleeper bus leaving that night to go to Pakse, the next destination of mine. I had originally intended to go out to one of the big temples just outside town, or perhaps the Buddha park, but after sleeping in, checking out of the guesthouse, eating some food and catching up on some emails, it was already the early afternoon. So I just spent a few hours walking around the city, meandering aimlessly through the less touristy parts. I quite enjoy just walking around new places, you get a feel for the vibe of the place and see what the 'non-tourist' parts look like. I walked past a couple of quite impressive buildings, and stopped at the 'Black Stupa', a very old stonework Stupa that is now a roundabout.
Walking back to my guesthouse in the mid afternoon, I heard someone yell something at me and ran after me down the street. Not knowing exactly what was going on I turned around and was confronted with the face of an old friend from New Zealand, someone who had gone to College House with me in my first year of uni. A fellow engineer (albeit only a chem eng), he is working on a mine site in northern Laos through and Australian company and was down in Vientiane for a few days. He had a colleague with a car, and so we all jumped in and went down to a pub for drinks (incidentally, the same pub I was in the night before). We had a good chat over a few drinks and laughed at all the old stories and caught up on the news of mutual friends we knew. It was definitely one of the things I least expected to happen in the sleepy streets of Vientiane!
Unfortunately after a few hours I had to leave and meet Garth for dinner before our bus left. We found a great curry place and proceeded to eat a lovely curry with samosas and naan bread. Brilliant. We said a quick goodbye to Charlie and Lou, before leaving for our bus. As is usual with any transport here, we waited for a good half hour at our guest house before the tuk-tuk arrived. We piled into this, and after picking up more and more people to the point of overfill capacity we arrived at the bust terminal. There was some confusion as the person issuing the tickets didn't have a matching ticket for my receipt (like everyone else I had booked and paid at my guesthouse). Nevertheless, after a few of them argued in Lao, I was given a ticket and sat down in my recliner seat of my VIP bus for the next ten hours.
The day was spent in a pretty leisurely fashion. I had a good sleep in, my first decent one in days. I had been told that there wasn't much to do in this sleepy capital, and so Garth and I booked a sleeper bus leaving that night to go to Pakse, the next destination of mine. I had originally intended to go out to one of the big temples just outside town, or perhaps the Buddha park, but after sleeping in, checking out of the guesthouse, eating some food and catching up on some emails, it was already the early afternoon. So I just spent a few hours walking around the city, meandering aimlessly through the less touristy parts. I quite enjoy just walking around new places, you get a feel for the vibe of the place and see what the 'non-tourist' parts look like. I walked past a couple of quite impressive buildings, and stopped at the 'Black Stupa', a very old stonework Stupa that is now a roundabout.
Walking back to my guesthouse in the mid afternoon, I heard someone yell something at me and ran after me down the street. Not knowing exactly what was going on I turned around and was confronted with the face of an old friend from New Zealand, someone who had gone to College House with me in my first year of uni. A fellow engineer (albeit only a chem eng), he is working on a mine site in northern Laos through and Australian company and was down in Vientiane for a few days. He had a colleague with a car, and so we all jumped in and went down to a pub for drinks (incidentally, the same pub I was in the night before). We had a good chat over a few drinks and laughed at all the old stories and caught up on the news of mutual friends we knew. It was definitely one of the things I least expected to happen in the sleepy streets of Vientiane!
Unfortunately after a few hours I had to leave and meet Garth for dinner before our bus left. We found a great curry place and proceeded to eat a lovely curry with samosas and naan bread. Brilliant. We said a quick goodbye to Charlie and Lou, before leaving for our bus. As is usual with any transport here, we waited for a good half hour at our guest house before the tuk-tuk arrived. We piled into this, and after picking up more and more people to the point of overfill capacity we arrived at the bust terminal. There was some confusion as the person issuing the tickets didn't have a matching ticket for my receipt (like everyone else I had booked and paid at my guesthouse). Nevertheless, after a few of them argued in Lao, I was given a ticket and sat down in my recliner seat of my VIP bus for the next ten hours.
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