Flashback to Vientiane

I took us quite a long time to get from the bus station of Vientiane to the city center. The tuk tuk drivers were trying to overcharge the backpackers, and we would have none of it. (During our god-forsaken trip, the backpackers on the bus had developed a strong sense of solidarity. I consider this to be proof that suffering bonds people.)

Finally we found a clean guesthouse, and I checked in, showered and slept. After some hours, I awoke, and Jon and I subsequently went foraging for Indian food. I was still exhausted, in a stupor, and near-starved. I decided to have a beer before dinner. This was a very bad decision. My embarrassingly low tolerance and food shortage combined to produce one pseudo-drunken Monique. This culminated in a bit of odd behavior. (I would snicker to myself, and when Jon asked me what was funny, I would mumble something unintelligible, sparking another bout of snickering. I was sort of like that crazy lady on the public transport, only I smelled a lot better.) After dinner, I took myself home to bed.

The next day, I woke up a bit more sane. For most of the day, Jon and I wandered around the town aimlessly. About ten minutes into our walk, I decided I was madly in love with Laos. It was ridiculously quiet and all the locals seemed very mellow and peaceful. We browsed through a bookstore and found the exact same book I had swapped with a friend in Vietnam. It had somehow found its way to Laos, where I had found it again. If books could talk, what tales they'd tell!

We were a bit short on kip (the Laos currency) so I stopped by the bank and withdrew the equivalent of 100 USD from the atm. Imagine my surprise when the atm spit out the one hundred bills, which were approximately one USD in value. The teller gave me a rubber band to hold it all together. Carrying around enormously fat stacks of cash became the theme of Laos.

That evening we ate at one of the restaurants lining the river. The food was really good, and I discovered that sticky rice is much more fun to eat than boring ol' steamed rice. We then drifted down the main streets (enjoying the silence, it was such a nice change from frenetic Hanoi) and wandered into a newly opened rooftop bar.

The next day was a bit of an admin day. We had to change Vietnamese dong to Laos kip, which proved to be a bit of a hassle. Most of the banks didn't handle dong, so we had to search out the Vietnamese bank. After the great exchange, we went climbed up the Laos-style arc de triumph. (It was constructed of concrete and a bit crumbly, but it's still really pretty.)

We then went to a wat, which offered massages and herbal steams. I decided the herbal steam room was waaaay too hot for me. (I spent maybe sixty seconds inside. Why would I want to sit in a steam room when all of SE Asia felt like a steam room?)

The next day we headed out to Vang Vien, which is billed as a Mecca for those hippy types.