Vientiane, an intro to Laos

From Hanoi you have 2 popular options of travel to Vientiane - 1) a 26 hour bus ride or 2) a 2 hour plane. We opted for the plane. This may not be what many backpackers do but screw that I'm not wasting a day on buses and messing with boarder guards and we couldn't afford another Cambodia/Vietnam boarder issue. Our plane trip was uneventful and our trip through the immigration line was about 30 seconds. I've never seen it that fast anywhere. Then when arranging for transport from the airport to town an American couple asked if we wanted to share a cab. Turns out they are from Hartford, CT and were also on an extended honeymoon of 11 months. Small world we live in. Vientiane is the capital of Laos but based on what you see on the ride to town you would never know it. The trip is only a few kilometers but seemed to take a while. As we later rented a motorbike we learned that this is because there are some dirt roads in town and many of the other roads are in mediocre condition at best. The city is small and relatively undeveloped when compared to the cities we visited in Vietnam. Allow me to put this in perspective, the country of Laos is approximately the size of Utah but it has a population smaller than that of Manhattan (approx 7 million people). The entire country's GDP is about $2.4 Billion ($13.4 Billion GDP purchase power parity) which is smaller than half the deals I've worked on in the last 2 years. As we explored the town we began to like it. The Mekong river is the boarder between Laos and Thailand in this area and Vientiane is right on the Mekong. There are dozens of street vendors that have built makeshift little decks on which they serve their customers dinner overlooking the river. Also, there was a noticeable absence of overly pushy vendors which was a great change from Vietnam. It was really nice. We ended up meeting our new CT friends, Eric and Rachel, for dinner one night and went out for beers on St. Patrick's day which was great.

They were a refreshing change from many of the English speaking traveler's we've met. So many of the US, UK, Aussie and Kiwi travelers we meet are only interested in talking about the lighter parts of life and of travel rather than what they really saw or experienced, good and bad on their trip. Rachel and Eric are both really smart and well spoken about issues facing the US at home and internationally. What a great change! Another great time we had was taking the motorbike out to this Wat which has afternoon mediation classes and next to the Wat is an outdoor sauna and massage place. We decided we would head out for some time sweating the dirt out of our pores, get a massage and then go to the meditation class. Well, we had so much fun hanging out in nothing but a sarong with about 10 other travelers chatting about the lighter side of travel that we missed the mediation class. We ended up spending about 3-4 hours there and loved it all. If you saw the place you might not think anything of it but the funny Lao lady who runs the place just makes a great atmosphere for travelers. One afternoon we had the bright idea to ride the motorbike 35km to this waterfall. We are so bright. It's the end of dry season. Here is what the waterfall looked like...

Anyhow, we're happy and healthy and taking a bus to Luang Prabang soon so we'll catch you later.