Laos’ capital is more like a town than a city and coming from bustling Vietnam, you realize pretty fast that things go much slower here. The town centre is craving for every tourism Dollar it can get as you don’t see any locals roaming around the streets that have no business with people like me. Therefore you have westernized shops, restaurants and bars downtown much unlike the many hawker stalls in Hanoi. The French colonized the “Country of a Million Elephants” and united three individual kingdoms into one protectorate, adding an additional “s” for plural to its name. Hence Laos will be called Lao from now on as everybody else does in Asia.
The bus trip from Hanoi to Vientiane is called “Bus from Hell” on various Internet forums as you will see why. The so called “sleeper bus” is very famous in Vietnam and probably the best way to get from town to town. I used it from Saigon to Nha Trang and then to Hoi An and from there to Hanoi. The journeys take about 9-12 hours and starts between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm. There will be one or more stops along the way depending on whether there is a toilet on board. Sometimes you have your own private seat, as shown in the picture, sometimes you have two seats next to each other and you are “cuddling” with some foreigner. Actually a resting bus would be more specific, as you rarely get much sleep. The roads are partly in horrible conditions with many potholes, or the driver honks to let someone know he is overtaking, etc. Also you need the physique of a Vietnamese to be comfy in those seats. I am just 177cm and would like to see how a guy with 195cm is doing. Anyway it gets you to where you want to be, you can also save the money for a guest house, but you don’t arrive there in best conditions.
On the day of my journey from Hanoi to Vientiane I get picked up at 16:45h (15 minutes early) and we collected several people around town. At about 17:45 we came to the bus station where I realized the bus wouldn’t leave until 19:00h. Yeah, thanks picking me up at a quarter to five. We stopped for dinner at about 21:00h and after that I was able to get some sleep. After two hours I was woken because someone wanted to sit next to me. Of course it had to be me. Anyway, time passed and at 6:30h we finally arrived at the border. Exiting from Vietnam took actually more time than applying for and getting granted a visa at the Lao border.
You had to walk 500m from the Vietnames to the Lao border where I took this picture, a nice hint of what I was about to experience.
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| creek at the Vietnamese-Lao border |
My travel guide warned that breakdowns are not uncommon in Lao and that you have to bring a lot of patience. So it happened after breakfast that we stopped for 45 minutes in the melting sun in buttfu… nowhere waiting for the brakes to get fixed. I though it might be good to get all the bad luck out of the way on the first trip since this day is ruined anyway. Around 5:00pm we finally arrived in Vientiane and the worst but most interesting bus trip of my life ended after a little more than 24hours.
I looked for a guest house and once again went with the Lonely Planet’s pick. The room had a giant bed being much wider than long and also I got my own balcony with a comfy chair.
The next day I strolled around town and visited the Putaxai, an Arc de Triomphe replica, constructed with American concrete that was initially donated to build a new airport resulting in its informal nickname “The vertical Runway”. Being just a little bit higher than the original to put the French in their place, the monument dominates the financial district with a striking view from its top floor.
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| Arc de Triomphe replica - Patuxai |
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| view over Patuxai Park from top flor of the Arc |
What is Angkor Wat for Cambodia is Pha That Luang for Lao. The golden pagoda is the national symbol and is even featured on the official seal. Unlike Cambodia it didn’t make it on the flag, though. The pagoda was constructed from 1566 onward and Lao’s highest monk resides in an adjacent temple.
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| Pha That Luang |
On the way to Pha That Luang I took a short break when a young monk walked up to me and suggested we could have a look at the pagoda together. I gladly accepted the invitation and so he told me he has been a novice (he didn’t want to be addressed as a monk since he is still carrying the novice-ribbon) for 5 years now and started living in the temple when he was 13. His English is ok but taking into consideration that he doesn’t work in tourism, I must say his English is great. He showed me around the temples and explained everything to me as good as his limited vocabulary permitted. He was especially eager to make sure how important this temple is to the Lao people.
Afterwards we visited the army museum where several weapons and vehicles from past conflicts are depicted. I would have never gone there but went along as I was just fascinated with this kid’s spiritual view of the world that is so much different from mine.
I still hadn’t figured out why he approached me in the first place until he told me that the monks and novices always invite tourists on weekends. The foreigners get to see the temple and the monks can improve their English which makes it a win/win situation.
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