Travel Story «Vientiane, Laos - The S is Silent»

Lao | 0 Comments 06 April 2006 - Last Update 01 June 2006

I had a bad feeling about Laos before we ever even got there because this country has had no Cinema since the advent of home video rental in the early eighties. Please note this if you feel that my memoirs are overly negative, I felt it was a personal slight.

Well the strange thing about Vientiane the capital city of Laos (not Laois, though spelt similarily they are actually quite different!) was that the journey there was the most memorable thing about it. (Please see earlier blog entry).

We arrived tired and a bit cranky really but to be honest after the journey we had had the only way was up. We made a booking for accommodation in Hanoi, in what we thought was the centre of Vientiane. The taxi dropped us, and the crankiest british back-packer we'd met on our travels (teacher with a guitar, acne and an attitude problem if you ask me) to our hotel. Initally we thought we were in the wrong place because it was so dead and because there was no evidence of our booking. But no we were in the right place, and to be honest it was the most like a ghost town I'd ever seen in my life. Laos is a very large country (236,800km squared) with a relatively small population (5,924,000 2005 estimate) and only 200,00 people are estimated to live in the capital. They were obviously on a massive joint holiday when we were there because if we met 25 people there, I'd be surprised.

So apart from the feeling that we were in an abandoned area we found Vientiane a relaxing alternative to the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. After we found our accommodation (and our roomies, all the bedbugs in the southern hemisphere seemed to congregate in the mattresses) we made our way to a group of cafes/pubs/restaurants on the other side of the road and spent alot of time there. 

While Lorna and Emily were getting more spiritual sustainance and massaging (yes another Temple), Aisling/The Ace and I staged a quick getaway and made our way to the nearest available swimming pool. Once you've swam in the pool at the Hilton Hotel in Vientiane (as we have), you gain a greater understanding for the common man I feel.

Essentially Vientiane is a capital unlike any other I've ever seen, very quiet and lacking in people. If your only staying in Laos for a short while (like we thought we were, until we couldn't get out of the place I'd concentrate on other places.

Lorna here on the Saturday we had heard about a temple where you can get herbal saunas and massage as well as open meditation on Saturdays. So we all headed off for the day only to discover that temple grounds are not sign posted very clearly and we ended up knocking on some poor monks door looking for massage he directed us in the right direction. where we found a hut on stilts with what looked like male masseurs. well we our foursome reduced to two at this point as Aisling and Grainne decided they where not comfortable with male massage. But Emily and I continued only to find women there which we were a little relived by. After the usual look at there pale skin chat we had an hour of lovely massage very different to Thai as no pulling an cracking of joints.After this we headed over for the open meditation with a half hour to kill we walked around when we meet two lovely novice monks who were literally falling over themselves to talk to us as they wanted to practice their english. so emily was lead away behind the temple by her monk companion and was brought over to see some lovely paintings. Now looking back if these boys were not monks I do not think we would have fallen for these lines but hey we thought nothing of it. we then realised we were bit late for meditation you can imagine how well it looked us arriving with our new friends.The meditation was good we did 20 mins of sitting meditation which was nice if it wasn't for the damn flies and dead legs. we then did walking meditation which was lovely much easier and relaxing and then another 20 mins of sitting mediation. after which i have to say i felt totally relaxed. Our new friends walked us to the gate where i received an email address which i have not yet used as do not know why i was given it and he was about 16 years old. have to say great experience.