Shortly after writing my last post I jumped into a coach and 4 hours later I was in Laos' capital city Vientiane. Vientiane is a great city. In some places it was like stepping straight back into the West but you could turn a corner and find massive gold statues and an arch going into one of the cities many temples. There are many French colonial buildings and establishments; including a rich tapestry of bakeries! On our first day we went and saw the Laos equivalent to the Arc De Triomphe. As Tom would say: "nice from afar, far from nice" - though that in a very different context! The monument itself is called Patuxai but is often known as the "vertical runway" since the US gave them the money to build an airport, hence Laos still doesn't have an international airport! After that we saw another major Laos symbol that's printed on most of their currency. It's a temple called Pha That Luang and is said to hold the Buddha's breastbone according to the Khmer. We struggled a bit walking around in the heat and decided to go back to the guest house to cool down a bit.
Second day we didn't do an awful lot. We did however go to the most amazing cafe and have the most amazing bagel ever! It was fun having an explore of the city. We had some dinner along the riverfront which looked pretty cool when the sun was setting.
As soon as the sun did set we were mobbed by mosquitoes but other than that it was nice. Also in Vientiane we tried renting motorbikes, but with no space and no where to practice it didn't go as well as planned. Have to try again in Hanoi. Me and Andy also went shooting. The guns were just crappy rifles that weren't particularly powerful but it was still a cool experience. We were shooting paper targets and had two go's, five shots each. First go I got a miserable score of 8 and the second I got a mildly respectable 32.
The Laos National Museum was interesting. And very anti American, though that isn't too much of a surprise. The museum was a bit odd since it wasn't very big and had a sort of round circuit of prehistoric, ancient history, and then working the way through 14th to 20th centuries. It was nice doing it in our own time and since everything was in English we didn't need a guide. Since we haven't seen too much of Laos, and barely anything rural, it was at least decent to get a grip on some of the Laos culture and history.
The ride from Vientiane to Hanoi wasn't particularly enjoyable. It took just under 24 hours but the roads weren't as bad as everyone made them out to be. I guess since going through Eastern Europe and China on public transport we're probably just used to it. We also had 2 seats each so we could at least stretch out a bit. We arrived late afternoon and got to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel in the ancient town.
Hanoi is literally buzzing. This is because everywhere you look there are a million and 10 mopeds and motorbikes. Crossing the road can be a bit tricky since there aren't any traffic laws here. Or if there are you wouldn't know! We went for a walk around the ancient city yesterday. Every road is a massive stall of markets, it's really cool just wandering around, getting some eats and just exploring the place. We also saw the tortoise lake (that probably isn't its name) where as far as we are aware there aren't any tortoises but there's enclosure of the remains of a massive tortoise that was apparently in that lake... though that didn't look particularly real.
That's it for now. I'm looking forward to exploring Hanoi further and seeing some of its temples and museums. Until next time!!
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