I had forgotten it was Valentine’s Day (sadly all a bit irrelevant….) until I arrived in Vientiane. But I was reminded as I was greeted in arrivals by a rather cute guy, who introduced himself as Jack, who presented me with a beautiful red rose and a decent bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. My luck really has changed, I thought! But as usual, I am ahead of myself.
I make a reluctant goodbye to Luang Prabang this morning (I really did love it there….) to fly to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. It’s all a bit small in Laos so the airport is very close to the town. My guide (can’t believe I had a guide and a driver just to get me down the road to the airport….) was making the usual hard to decipher small talk. But I understood enough to realise as he was pointing to what looked like tiny toy planes on the tarmac and telling me “Lao Aviation has a few planes, some are French and are good, some are Chinese and are not good”. Looking at the array of twin prop rust buckets, I thought they all looked “not good” frankly. Let’s hope someone’s on my side, and even though, being a Brit, on balance I prefer the Chinese to the French, when it comes to small planes, I would err on the side of the French every time…
But it must have been a French one – a short flight, a small turbo prop plane, but I got here all in one piece. It’s a bit of a stopover here in Vientiane as, due to the problem with the boat, I had to drop a day in Laos, and the plan is to leave for Phnom Penh tomorrow. Thanks to Ant’s advice, I dropped the day here rather than Luang Prabang – good advice Ant! Vientiane must be the smallest capital city I have ever been to in my life. Just a few streets, really quiet and very little traffic. Today is Saturday so I don’t know if this makes it quieter….. Set on the Mekong again, along which there are lots of little stalls and restaurants. The river looks really low here – it divides itself into two, with a narrow brown ribbon on the Vientiane side, a huge exposed beach in the middle and a wider fast flowing bit on the other side. I didn’t arrive here till early afternoon, but had “done” the city by about 5.30 pm – speed sightseeing, and that included a coffee and sugar doughnut. The good pastries are a result of the French influence – even though I was in the Scandinavian Bakery…..
Am pleased I am here for such a short time – it’s a nice place, but not nearly as charming as Luang Prabang , and a much lower “chill out” factor. After the lovely old houses in Luang Prabang, this is more ordinary, with the usual narrow three storey buildings – a shop on the ground floor and accommodation above. There are also quite a few old French Colonial buildings, all going to rack and ruin. It is very tidy though – none of the piles of rubbish you see in other Asian cities. They also seem less neurotic about shoes here – everywhere in Luang Prabang you had to take your shoes off before going in – and I mean everywhere, the hotel, temples (fair enough), shops and restaurants. It would not have surprised me to have been asked to take my shoes off before I stepped on the plane! But here in Vientiane, there is a notice in the hotel room asking you not to leave the room barefoot…. confused or what!
So tonight I am ensconced in my room at the Novotel, fine but probably the least charming hotel so far (oops, I was forgetting the Ashram….) as the local populace attend the 300,000 kip (about £26) Valentines Dinner experience downstairs. An odd one, as well as including wine, drinks, dinner and the live band, you get two Lao airlines tickets…. perhaps I should have gone!
And I am sure you are wondering why I am not down there with Jack, my Valentine red rose bearing cutie. Unfortunately there was a rather less romantic and more mundane explanation for this largesse. The travel company are still trying to apologise for the problem with the boat trip earlier in the week. Jack is the MD of the Vientiane branch, and this was yet another olive branch. They didn’t really need to do more, as I haven’t been charged anything for those two days on the Mekong, and whilst inconvenient at the time, it turned out to be a free adventure! The beautifully wrapped single red rose was proferred and then the wine with the explanation ”we know yu lye why why”. How they know this about me I am not too sure, perhaps they read this blog!
I make a reluctant goodbye to Luang Prabang this morning (I really did love it there….) to fly to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. It’s all a bit small in Laos so the airport is very close to the town. My guide (can’t believe I had a guide and a driver just to get me down the road to the airport….) was making the usual hard to decipher small talk. But I understood enough to realise as he was pointing to what looked like tiny toy planes on the tarmac and telling me “Lao Aviation has a few planes, some are French and are good, some are Chinese and are not good”. Looking at the array of twin prop rust buckets, I thought they all looked “not good” frankly. Let’s hope someone’s on my side, and even though, being a Brit, on balance I prefer the Chinese to the French, when it comes to small planes, I would err on the side of the French every time…
But it must have been a French one – a short flight, a small turbo prop plane, but I got here all in one piece. It’s a bit of a stopover here in Vientiane as, due to the problem with the boat, I had to drop a day in Laos, and the plan is to leave for Phnom Penh tomorrow. Thanks to Ant’s advice, I dropped the day here rather than Luang Prabang – good advice Ant! Vientiane must be the smallest capital city I have ever been to in my life. Just a few streets, really quiet and very little traffic. Today is Saturday so I don’t know if this makes it quieter….. Set on the Mekong again, along which there are lots of little stalls and restaurants. The river looks really low here – it divides itself into two, with a narrow brown ribbon on the Vientiane side, a huge exposed beach in the middle and a wider fast flowing bit on the other side. I didn’t arrive here till early afternoon, but had “done” the city by about 5.30 pm – speed sightseeing, and that included a coffee and sugar doughnut. The good pastries are a result of the French influence – even though I was in the Scandinavian Bakery…..
Am pleased I am here for such a short time – it’s a nice place, but not nearly as charming as Luang Prabang , and a much lower “chill out” factor. After the lovely old houses in Luang Prabang, this is more ordinary, with the usual narrow three storey buildings – a shop on the ground floor and accommodation above. There are also quite a few old French Colonial buildings, all going to rack and ruin. It is very tidy though – none of the piles of rubbish you see in other Asian cities. They also seem less neurotic about shoes here – everywhere in Luang Prabang you had to take your shoes off before going in – and I mean everywhere, the hotel, temples (fair enough), shops and restaurants. It would not have surprised me to have been asked to take my shoes off before I stepped on the plane! But here in Vientiane, there is a notice in the hotel room asking you not to leave the room barefoot…. confused or what!
So tonight I am ensconced in my room at the Novotel, fine but probably the least charming hotel so far (oops, I was forgetting the Ashram….) as the local populace attend the 300,000 kip (about £26) Valentines Dinner experience downstairs. An odd one, as well as including wine, drinks, dinner and the live band, you get two Lao airlines tickets…. perhaps I should have gone!
And I am sure you are wondering why I am not down there with Jack, my Valentine red rose bearing cutie. Unfortunately there was a rather less romantic and more mundane explanation for this largesse. The travel company are still trying to apologise for the problem with the boat trip earlier in the week. Jack is the MD of the Vientiane branch, and this was yet another olive branch. They didn’t really need to do more, as I haven’t been charged anything for those two days on the Mekong, and whilst inconvenient at the time, it turned out to be a free adventure! The beautifully wrapped single red rose was proferred and then the wine with the explanation ”we know yu lye why why”. How they know this about me I am not too sure, perhaps they read this blog!
