VIP

  Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
April 13, 2009

We woke up at 6 am and were on our way to an internet cafe at 7 am. At the first 2 places we were not able to place an International call, but found a cooperative young girl at the 3rd spot. Bill called and talked to his Mom; Don, Lauri and the kids had already gone home. I called Doug and Daphne's and spoke with Scott, Doug, Carol, Jason and Daphne; the Youngs have rushed home to take care of Ella and Ally for us and my Mom wanted to get home before dark. It was nice to hear from home. Sounds like everyone is good and our Tigers have improved since they left Toronto, even my friend Rodney has been doing well with 2 saves!

We went back to the room, showered and had breakfast buffet. We had some fruit, fried and scrambled eggs, baguette and Laos soup. Breakfast was served in the main meeting room and the upper balcony. There were no seats outside, but the room was open, so it was still a nice setting. I think that buffets should be abandoned in this part of the world. There were bugs crawling all over the tables with the food...

We watched part of a movie and packed up our things. We arrived at the tour office before 9:30 to find out that only one other couple had signed up. The "boss" wanted to cancel our trip. We agreed to go for an extra 50,000/couple, but the other couple did not want to pay extra. So, we got our money back and are now going to have to find another way to Vientiane. I am very disappointed. I really wanted to kayak and don't want to be on a bus all day again.

We walked to another tour office, but they are not going today either. Bill walked to Green Discovery, they did go today, but had left at 9 am.

We walked back to the first tour office to book the VIP bus to Vientiane at 10 am. I am not 100% sure what the difference is between the VIP bus and the regular bus, but we should have a/c on this one and in the pictures, this bus looks a lot newer. The guy gave us a 10,000 kip each discount since our tour was cancelled. At 10 we loaded into a minivan that took us 2 blocks away. We walked through a Guest House to get to the huge empty parking lot where the bus was parked out back (old airstrip). We were the first to arrive, our bags were loaded into the bus and we picked out our seats in the upper part of the bus at the back. We immediately got off of the bus because it was very hot and the bus was not running.

Two more minivan loads showed up including Luke, Holly, Lisa, Michael and Liam. Bill snuck back onto the bus and grabbed some water. He dumped it on Liam when he boarded the bus, "Happy New Year"! We caught up with them, Luke is feeling better and Lisa and Holly are hung-over today. Michael and Lisa found a place to party on the island until 4 am. Luke and Holly were briefly taken hostage after tubing. They stayed at the first bar and a local person offered to take them back to town, but first were given dinner and drinks at their home. Holly sampled chicken feet while she was there.

We all loaded onto the bus and the driver turned on the a/c, thank God! After some eavesdropping we discovered that the 2 guys sitting in front of us are from NFLD. They are off for 3 weeks, they had been practice teaching in Southern Thailand and are travelling before heading back to school.

Again I am not feeling 100% today, so I took some Gravol. Our 153 km ride to Vientiane was mostly flat and on good roads, so I was able to nap for a while and do some reading. I had a suspicion that my book was photocopied and now I know it is. I was reading and suddenly 30 pages are missing. What a pain!

Just after we passed the 74 km to Vientiane route marker is where we stopped for "lunch". We could have purchased a sandwich, but they did not look very appetizing. Everyone else was opting for chips or ice cream. We decided to share some bugles. I have not had those in a long time! The toilet charge was more reasonable here. It was 1,000 kip and I was given some tissue and they had sinks with soap too!

We finished the bugles on the bus and polished off the banana chips with peanut butter and peanuts that we have had for a while. We will have a late lunch when we get there.

We arrived in the middle of Vientiane around 2:30. Since we could determine where we were and Bill had a good idea where our hotel was, we decided to walk. Well, we found the hotel OK, but it was a long walk. We were exhausted and hot when we arrived. Turns out the guys from NFLD are staying here too. We could have shared a tuk tuk. At first the girls at reception could not find our reservation, we had an email confirmation, but they had a room for us on the 3rd floor anyway. We may be able to switch to an upgraded room in 2 days (we are staying for 4 or 5 nights).

The room is very nice. The paint is blue, the doors have been washed with blue paint for a rustic look and there is glazed bricks in the "kitchenette" area of our room. There is a fridge, some plates, cutlery, glasses, lots of shelving around the bed. The bathroom is spacious and the shower has a door! The only downside to the room is that the TV is set up near the ceiling and it is a small TV. Good thing we have good eyesight!

We hussled downstairs and took a cab to the Vietnamese Embassy. We are going to apply for our Visa here before going to Cambodia. When we arrive we know it is going to be a problem because there is a sign that the office is going to be closed for the next few days, due to the holiday. The grouchy guy behind the counter suggests that we apply for our passport in Phnom Penh instead.

We walked around the area, Patuxi, the Laos Arc de Triomphe, was nearby. The arc was built in 1969, to commemorate Laos who died in prerevolutionary wars, with cement donated by the USA for construction of the airport, thus it is sometimes referred to as the "vertical runway". It is decorated with many 1/2 woman, 1/2 bird creatures called: Nang Kinnary. You can walk up and have a view of the city, but we did not.

We toured through the Morning Market. It does not look like everyone is open today. While passing through the appliance section some young guys dumped water on us. Already celebrating New Year! Also in the market is souvenirs, books, household items, clothes, jewellery, but not much food. Outside the market an old lady tried to dump pop on me. Bill let her do it to him, turned out the can was filled with water.

We finally found a place to eat near That Dum, the black stupa. We had some ginger chicken, pork ribs, Thai iced tea and BeerLao. The food was good and the lady was very nice, but we were swarmed with flies. Our waitress taught us "Happy New Year" is Sabai dee Pi Mai Lao! (sounds like Be Mine Lao). What that really means is "please pour water on me".

We were drenched by the time we went to an internet cafe, so I was freezing. After a while we went back to the room to warm up, watched "23" with Jim Carey, ate candy, an apple and peanut butter, and a coke. We did not go back out for dinner, we just went to bed.