A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
Vientiane, Laos

You're probably wondering why I haven't posted anything in several days. Well, it's because I'm bored, bored, bored, sitting in Vientiane waiting for my Myanmar visa. And although after the first night things got much better at the hotel, trying to think up ways to kill sixteen waking hours a day has been a decided challenge for me over the last week.

It's not that Vientiane is a bad place. In fact, it's a nice little city with lots of decent restaurants, which you certainly can't say about many places I've visited. The Lao people are wonderful and friendly and God knows it's a relaxing country, but the city just isn't a place where a tourist would spend five days. In other words, there's not much to do here.

I have attempted to stretch out the available sights in the area so I have at least one cultural thing to do each day. So on the first day I visited a very old Buddhist temple and chatted with a young orange-robed monk for a couple hours. The second day I did the "architectural walking tour" described in my guidebook and visited the Lao National History Museum (typically loaded with captions that include the phrase "American puppets"). On Day 3 I walked out to the 1960's era concrete Lao-style Arc de Triomphe (built from concrete intended by the U.S. to expand the airport) and wandered around the Pha That Luong, an important national/religious monument that looks like a brightly gilded missile cluster. On my fourth day I went ot Haw Pha Kaew, a former temple from which those nasty imperialist Thais swiped the Emerald Buddha in 1779 (it's still in Bangkok, and the Thais don't seem sorry at all).

So now it's Day 5 and what am I to do? I've exhaused all the guidebook stuff I want to see, since I don't want to get too burned out on temples before I get to Luang Prabang. I've finished three books during my stay here, and I've already spent an hour on the internet this morning. Plus, it's only 2:00 pm as I write this and I've already eaten breakfast, lunch, one fruit smoothie and a piece of chocolate pie. I'm going to gain five pounds in Vientiane just from sheer lack of anything better to do.

Fortunately for my sanity, my weight, and my book supply, the end is in sight. At 4:00pm today I pick up my passport and visa, after which I will visit the U.S. Embassy because my passport is OUT OF PAGES! Can you believe that? I never thought that could be possible until I saw how enthusastically Asian countries appropriate whole pages for their tourist visas.

Tomorrow I head north on a special tourist minibus to Vang Vieng for which I paid TEN TIMES the cost of a regular public bus to the same destination, though mine does include air conditioning, some interesting touristy stops along the way and presumably does not allow livestock as passengers. Seven dollars I paid for this luxury. Now that I've spent such a mint on the tourist bus, maybe you all won't think I'm so cheap for staying in that $1.50/night guesthouse for five days.

Well, enough rambling. Hopefully next time I'll have a bit more of substance to relate.


Copyright 2003 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 1:02 AM