Lovely Laos

Oct 20

Our bus to Vientiane was a huge, comfortable AC bus and it was packed. It took another two hours toThailand, get through the same at the Laos border and get into Vientiane and catch a tuk tuk to our guesthouse. When we first saw our room I was a bit disappointed. It seemed small and so did the bathroom. When I realized it cost $36 a night, had AC, a refrigerator where I could keep my prescription eye drops, a many channeled TV with BBC news, free wifi with computers for guests use and a breakfast with eight choices from the menu and you could choose any two, I had a change of heart.

get through passport control at the border of

After checking in we wandered around the neighborhood to get a feel for where we were. I also needed a laundry but couldn’t find one. We went back to the hotel to cool down before venturing out to dinner and it turned out the guesthouse provided the laundry service at a reasonable rate.. We decided to splurge and went to a lovely French restaurant. I am not sure when the French colonists left Laos but I would guess around the 1950’s-60’s. Because we are traveling for seven months to seven countries we didn’t bring seven travel books with us. We cut out the pages from each book of the cities we plan to visit as a way to lighten our load. Although this restaurant was highly recommended in our book it had an outdated address. It worked out well as the restaurant was an easy walk from our hotel. The meal was superb. I appreciate what the French left in terms of their culinary arts. The restaurant was small, located above another restaurant owned by the same people I think. It had an understated, serene atmosphere and decor and was romantic with fresh flowers on each table. The artwork, two large format photos of Laotian women that looked like paintings at first, complimented the ambiance. We shared a salad of mixed greens and great French baguette. Ron had chicken breast in a curry sauce with sweet potato mousse and veggies and I had a fabulous tilapia with veggies and a corn relish. We were back at the hotel by 9:30 and in bed, ready for a good night’s sleep. The heat here really sapped us. It is 91 degrees but feels like 101 due to humidity according to weather.com.

Oct 21

I failed to mention that in Laos the vendors, restaurants and hotels all will accept Thai baht, US dollars or the local currency. One US dollar equates to 8,048 Lao kip. Not a quick conversion when trying to calculate how much something costs. The reality is nothing seems to cost much here. We got up at 7:00 and walked down to the Mekong River. There weren’t any good photo ops because from the looks of it there is a large variation in the river level and so this time of year there was a long sandy stretch between the road and the river. We assumed this was the flood plain area. We stopped at a Swedish café on the way back and treated ourselves to a good cup of coffee. There isn’t a Starbucks here but it isn’t necessary as the French left their mark in that regard as well I think. Our breakfast at the hotel is served in the garden courtyard with wonderful plantings. See photo. The menu had eight choices such as: eggs to order with baguette, croissant, fruit plate, waffle, banana crepe, and two or three Asia

dishes. Breakfast was included in the room price.

We set out on foot and found a silk shop Leslie had recommended as well as our tour book. The shop, Lao Textiles by Carol Cassidy was a treat. We spent two hours with Carol. Initially a staff member took us on a tour of the studio. There are 40 Lao employees. The tour showed us the entire process of washing, dying, spinning and weaving the most incredible silk objects d’art. Carol joined us after the tour. She has lived in Laos for 20 years. She is an American who studied textile art in the US before coming to Laos. She worked in S Africa where she met her Ethiopian husband.  

Many of the items were exquisite wall hangings. As is our tradition, we bought a wall hanging for our 29^th anniversary present. November 30^th is our anniversary. We also bought a bracket for the hangers she has designed and two tassel items that hang from the brackets making a super display. Years ago Ron’s dear mom, Sonia, told us we were so boring because we gave each other practical gifts on our anniversary so we started a tradition of buying art each year. We are delighted to come away with such a lovely memory of Laos. Carol has started programs for weavers in various countries. She told us a great story about the non profit she is volunteering for in India Some of Carol’s work is sold through the Smithsonian.

 

We returned to the hotel to leave our weaving and went in search of lunch. We ate at a place filled with locals and had a curried pork rice dish. Good and cheap! After a brief rest at the hotel we headed out to see two temples that also serve as museums with various historical items and lots of Buddha statues. Wat Sisaket is one of the most important buildings in Vientiane and it houses over 7,000 Buddha images. The monastery was built in 1818 and was the only temple to survive the Thai sacking of the town in 1827-28, making it the oldest building in Vientiane.


 Across the street is Wat Pra Kaeo originally built in 1565 to house the emerald Buddha. This
building was destroyed in the sacking mentioned above. The building was restored in the 1940’s and 1950’s. During the restoration the interior walls were restored using plaster made of sugar, sand, buffalo skin and tree oil. The heat overwhelmed me and I had to just sit in the shade to regroup. Man oh man it is hotter than heck here. We walked back to the hotel where I stripped down and sponged off and got in bed right near the AC. Whew, what a great invention that is. Next we walked across the street for a foot massage Lao style.

We walked around and ended up eating at a funky little Indian restaurant and had a great meal of gingered chicken, spicy and rich with ginger, rice, bengain bhartha, a creamy smoked eggplant dish and garlic naan (The werewolves stayed away that night!).

Oct 22

Ron went out early in search of monks collecting alms and to photograph the early morning market. He over slept and missed the monks; but he came back with some nice market photos  The monks  walk along the neighborhoods gathering food from Buddhists who earn merit by preparing and giving food to monks each morning. Monks eat breakfast and lunch then don’t eat again until the next day. From the market Ron also brought back two sesame balls. When we lived in Portland this summer there was a great Asia restaurant two blocks from our house that made the best sesame balls. These were good but the Portland version was tastier. We went out for coffee after breakfast at the Swedish bakery around the corner and ate the sesame balls

We hired a brightly painted tuk tuk (see photo) to take us to theVictory Monument, Laos’s version of the Arc d’Triomphe. It commemorates those who died in the wars before the communist takeover. The story goes that they ran out of cement before completion. Refusing to be beaten, the regime diverted hundreds of tons of cement, part of a US aid package to help with the construction of runways at Wattay Airport, to finish the monument in 1969.The sign at the monument says it all.  

Next we visited That Luang, Vientiane’s most important site and the holiest Buddhist monument in the country. The present monument was built in 1566 and was plundered by the Thai and Chinese Haw in the 18^th century. It was restored at the beginning of the 19^th century. It’s surrounded by beautiful park lands that include a statue of King Setthathirat who was responsible for building the temple originally. As well as other more modern facilities.

Next we went in search of more silk. I wanted some silk to compliment the teal silk I found in Thailand and hit the jackpot near our hotel. I went to two stores which were side by side. One was having a 50% off sale and I got three meters of light weight silk for a song then next store I found exactly what I wanted: a raw heavy silk for a collar and cuffs on the jacket I am planning with the teal. Then I spied some elegant purple silk and couldn’t resist. All told I bought six meters between the two shops for $47!!!!  Score. After putting the silk in our room we ventured out for lunch and I was dying to try a Lao sandwich. More French influence here. We found a ‘sandwich café. How perfect. I loved my baguette with roasted eggplant, sautéed onions, lettuce, basil and goat cheese. OMG that was yummy. Ron liked his bacon tartine with béchamel sauce. We were fully sated and headed home for a cooling off.  Afterwards we opted for a Lao body/foot massage which we thoroughly enjoyed. Although similar to Thai massage it is gentler, less painful and more relaxing. We walked down to the riverfront where there was a huge night market and very popular with locals and tourists. Just about everything you might want or not was there. Lots of Lao textiles and well as everyday clothing articles, accessories for your cell phone, etc. We waited until it cooled off to go to dinner and decided on Italian again. We found a lovely place where we could dine al fresco. It was the coolest it has been since we started our trip to Laos five days ago and it was perfect. Most nights have been too hot to dine outside. The dinner was quite good. We shared a Caesar salad and Ron had pork scaloppini and I had salmon. No room for dessert. We stolled around town after our meal and eventually made our way to our hotel.