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We arrived into Laos from Kuala Lumpur armed with various jungle essentials and a comprehensive travel insurace package to survive this...a frontier of primary jungle calling itself Vientiane and the capital of Laos. On landing we were surprised that the government had cleared the immediate area around the airport and instead of the thick rainforest we expected there was what appeared to be a very clean, western style main road leading in to what they called 'town'.
As we progressed along the road we were even more amazed that there was not even one tree house in sight and that in place of the expected bicycles and rickshaws were an increasing number of 4 wheel drives and BMWs. The moment we passed the third French style bakery it was clear that the plane had obviously not dropped us off in Laos at all - we must be in some European city...except ...except there were really quite a lot of Buddhist temples dotted around and, well, judging by the locals I was still a little on the tall side. On first impressions Laos was not what we had expected!
Vientiane is probably one of the cleanest and best kept South East Asian cities - more Florida than Flores with an evident Western inluence - past (from the French colonialists) and present (from the increasing number of US expats moving to the capital).
Being exhausted from our Indian 'smash and grab' we decided to stay in town for a few days to enjoy some home comforts and to avoid any form of transport. This turned out to be good as we found out that some friends we had met diving on Gili Air were in town. After a traditional Laos massage we went to a local restaurant called 'Makphet' to meet up with them - a classier place than we had eaten in for a while but we decided to pay the restaurant a visit as it was a training ground or Laos street children - offered the chance to train as chefs, waiters/esses and front of house. Think Jamie Oliver's '15' without the faux Cockney accent!
We were greeted by a nervous young girl with a huge smile who was most likely on her first shift, accompanied by her training buddy to help in case the language barrier became a little too much. She did a great job though and visibly sagged with relief after taking each order and getting the food to the right people. The food itself was lovely - buffalo cut into thin slices and wrapped around salad as little, meaty spring rolls for a starter, followed by the head chef's speciality curry for me and spicy beef for Eleanor.
Following dinner we were led astray by our friends - going to the local bowling alley (the only place in town open late) for a few games, some beer, more bowling, some beer, a 'Laos' bowling T-shirt (first sold in 10 years, probably) and a few games of pool, followed by some more beers. Before we stumbled home to the Mixay guesthouse to cultivate some very impressive headaches for the morning.
With not much else to do or see in town and after a couple of days of no travel we decided to leave the uninspiring but pleasant surrounds of Vientiane for what would hopefully turn out to be a more rural Laotian expreience - Vang Vieng - a little town in the mid to North of the country which is as famed or its beautiful surrounds as its party atmosphere. The oddest combination we had heard of a while so somewhere that's likely to be well worth a visit!
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