Sunday, January 24, 2016

Sunday, January 24, 2016

sleepy capital

Posted by Hippobean at 11:00 PM
A 4 hour ride brought us to Vientiane, the sleepy capital. First city in Laos but the streets were deserted, although the traffic was mad. After a lunch of some super noodles, it started to rain. The temp dropped and it was freezing. The freak storm was passing over Laos on its way to wreck havoc in HK and dumping some snow on the way. in freezing wind and rain we took a peek at the presidential palace and observed the Patuxai victory gate, which looked like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, from afar, and visited the Wat Sri Sa Ket temple and then the phra keaw temple where it used to house the Emerald Buddha. After so many temples and Buddha images on this trip, these 2 werent too interesting. Besides, the foul weather had dampened our spirits and all we've wanted was to go to a dry warm place for a cup of hot coffee or tea and a piece of cake or have a foot massage. I retired back to the hotel to eat my cup of noodles in curry duck flavor that i've bought at a pit stop. Why? simply because we dont have duck flavor in cup of noodles at home! had wanted to explore town a bit but the wind and rain and cold kept me in the hotel room. Nai took us to dine at the local Makphet Students restaurant that served slightly more expensive food. The menu was limited but several items had half portion options that cost a bit less, which suited me because I could never finished my food. The food was delicious. However, the waiters messed up our bills and charged full price for some half portions, so we've wasted quite a long time trying to straighten our bills out. We walked back to the hotel through the night market which was closing due to the cold weather. Crossing the main street was a horrendous doing. The cars and motorbikes kept coming and there's no pedestrian's right of way here. after waiting for a long time, we dashed across when the traffic thinned out a bit.

Saying i was disappointed at Laos was probably not entirely accurate. I did like luang prabang and even the tiny village of pakbeng didnt put me off. The Mekong cruise though was unexpectedly cold, too cold to be able to enjoy the float. my little enthusiasm about vang vieng was probably due to the hot humid weather. and I didnt expect too much from Vientiane. But I was really expected to be blown away by the natural beauty of this land. I wasnt. Though the food was good, simply because I love noodles and sticky rice.

tomorrow we leave the sleepy LAOS to fly to Cambodia. With every passing day, we inched closer and closer to angkor wat, the reason why I took this trip.

Vientiane photos:



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