Easing into Lao

While in Singapore, I was intrigued by the fact that I had to make an effort to get to Laos due to there being no direct flights from Singapore. I was sold on the idea of making this effort to get there.  I decided to backpack across the entire length of Vietnam from Saigon (Ho chi Minh city to the outside world) to Hanoi and then make my way by land across the border into Laos. I had company through my eight-day trip in Vietnam and as they departed on a Friday evening, I was left contemplating on whether I should continue with North Vietnam or jump into Laos and I chose the latter just because I knew lesser of Laos than I knew of North Vietnam. Not that I have anything against Vietnam; I love it enough to have made two trips to the country.

I zipped my bag, sat pillion on a moped, strapped on a helmet, took out the bookmark from the Vietnam page of my guidebook and inserted it into the Laos page and was on my way to the Hanoi bus station. Vietnam and Laos being popular backpacker spots have a twenty-hour bus journey connecting the capital cities of Hanoi and Vientiane. I was told that a USD 25 ticket would suffice in getting me to Vientiane and I handed the money to a travel agent in Hanoi before getting on the moped taxi. After a long ride and on being dropped off at a deserted bus stop on the outskirts of the city, I was beginning to have doubts on how I would get back into the city, leave alone get to Vientiane. My doubts soon transformed to suspicion as a small Vietnamese man walked up to me and asked me to follow him into the bus depot. He asked me to stand by the side of a blue bus while he went about with his work which included picking up big sacks (could have been vegetables or his children being transported without a ticket) and hurling them into the bus, and using a high pitched shriek to tell his crew to hurry up. I peered into the bus filled with locals and immediately got them all to look at me. This wasn’t the comfortable multi-axle bus that backpackers use to cross the border; this was a local bus, which would end up stopping every so often that may/may not end up in Vientiane. With no one understanding where I wanted to go, I trundled in with my bags deciding to risk it. It seemed like a school picnic bus to me with the geeky crowd sitting quietly upfront, a bunch of folks who stared at me suspiciously and looked uncomfortable as I sat next to one of them in the middle of the bus, and a loud young crowd occupying the back.  To get rid of my fears of ending up in the wrong destination, I shut my eyes and used the rumbling of the engine to lull myself to sleep.

I was a bit more relaxed when I woke up the next morning and stared at the Lao border.  I handed my USD 41 for a visa on arrival and got back onto the bus with a new stamp on my passport.  The ride into Vientiane was less eventful with the noisy bunch having gotten off the bus sometime the previous night. At 3pm I got off the bus and immediately basked in the much-needed July sunshine. The temperature was a comfortable 30 degree Celsius. Hordes of English speaking locals jumped on the foreigners who had gotten off the buses coming into the depot and tried coaxing the foreigners to come with them in their mode of transport into the city. Similarly, I got into a songthaew (an elongated auto rickshaw) and rode through the quiet town of Vientiane. Based on what I had read, I was ready for the sight of impoverished people and houses. I was pleasantly surprised though to see neatly paved roads and Buddhist architectural marvels spring up every so often in my short ride to the city centre. Not a big fan of pre booking accommodation, I walked into the Lonely Planet recommended Mixay guesthouse and managed to find a comfortable single bedroom with a shared bath for 60000 kip (Rs 400).

The first thing on my mind after the long bus journey was food. Laos was an important hub for the French in their control of Indochina during the colonial times. The architectural and culinary stamp left by the French lingers on to this day. The old French villas still line up some of the cobbled lanes. These have been pleasantly interspersed with Gallic restaurants piping out the scent of fresh baguettes making me take a reality check of whether I wasn’t automatically transported to some alleys in Lyon. Vientiane being a really popular haunt in the backpacker trail had cuisines that did a fairly good job of preventing homesickness for the many people that came to visit it each year. The city surprisingly has at least three good Indian restaurants and I being really ravenous chose Nazim, the one closest to my place of stay. The place was run by Indians who had settled down in Laos many years earlier and did a good job with the butter naan, bhindi masala and daal makhani. The good thing about travelling alone is that you pay a lot more attention to your surroundings and the people you come across on the trip. I was fortunate to meet two young women teachers from the Netherlands and a female student from the United States and accompanied them for a Beer Lao(Laos’ biggest beer brand) in one of the roadside stalls on the banks of the Mekong River.

Vientiane is used more as a base to catapult you into remoter parts of Laos than as a place to view its sights and attractions. It provides backpackers with one last whiff of comfort before unpleasant bus journeys, language barriers, and untouched caves, forests and hills take over. The few sights that it does have to offer can be covered in a day by foot. To energize, I started my day with breakfast at the much talked about Scandinavian Bakery. Croissants, omelets, muffins and of course baguettes can be seen on most tables and the place mostly lives up to the talk. I walked down Th Setthathirat and glimpsed at the Presidential Palace before entering the Wat Si Saket, the oldest Wat/temple in Vientiane. Wat si Saket features a cloister wall with more than 2000 ceramic and silver Buddha images. The armies of Siam used the compound as headquarters during the plundering of Vientiane in 1827.  From here, a walk down Vientiane’s most beautifully paved road, Th Lan Xang took me to Patuxai, Vientiane’s replica of the Arc de Triomphe. While the structure in itself does not have a picturesque appeal, one can say that it certainly provides an imposing gateway into central Vientiane. The ticket to climb up the Patuxai is very reasonably priced and is a must do for anyone who wishes to see sweeping views of the city.

Further down the road, walking past the different embassies is the beautiful golden Pha That Luang, the national monument of Laos. An image of the main stupa appears on the national seal. Legend has it that a Buddhist stupa was erected here to enclose a piece of Buddha’s breastbone as early as the 3^rd century BC. Definitely the most fascinating sight in Vientiane, this monument is a must-visit site in the city. Laos unfortunately has the tag of being the most bombed country in the world. The US led secret war in Laos resulted in the aerial dropping of approximately 260 million “bombies” between 1964 and 1973. Unfortunately, close to 80 million of these did not explode and are major causes for concern for the locals who work in the countryside. Since the end of the war, 12000 people have died because of UXO (unexploded ordnance) and this is where the COPE centre, an inspiring organization dedicated to supporting the victims of UXO and imparting training to locals in the manufacture of artificial limbs has played its part in providing relief to a country with a dangerous past. The visit to this centre was highly educational and moving.

With my only day in Vientiane drawing to a close, I stopped by at a local eatery to try Laap, Lao’s signature dish. It is basically a meat salad, which can be made using chicken, beef, duck, turkey, pork or fish. I opted for the chicken version, which was a mixture of chilly, mint leaves, onions, ground toasted rice and minced chicken. Served at room temperature, the spice from the chilly and flavor of the onions complemented the minced chicken really well leaving my mouth wanting a drink to temper down the spice. I promptly ordered for a Beer lao.