Day: 426
I set out with a mission this morning; try to get up and get some sunrise pictures. Unfortunately after a long day of travel yesterday, and a few beers last night my body didn’t agree with me. Instead I woke up just before 9, enjoyed free coffee and cake in the guesthouse lobby, chatted with a french guy looking for a job here and set out to find some pictures around 9:45am.As far as capital cities go, Vientiane is really small, just 300,000 people or so, with a strong French colonial influence. There are dozens of small French bakeries and cafes lining the streets, and many of the signs around are in French.
I headed out towards the Lonely Planet’s area of interest, temples and Monasteries and such, which we all within a few blocks of downtown and after about an hour of wandering I go stuck under the eves of a temple while ALL the waters in the heavens decided to fall on the Mekong.
I stood there gazing into the downpour when a pair of Thai sisters (sounds better than it was) also on vacation, and also stuck with me started talking. After finding a little about the older one who studied in Kentucky for a year, I gave up waiting and dashed off through the downpour to find a tuk tuk to drive me back near my guesthouse and find some lunch at one of the French cafes around.
The afternoon was spent reading for a couple hours until the rains cleared and then some more wandering of Vientienes streets until the sun set and I meandered down to the riverfront for dinner and the sweetest Thai iced tea ever, it was like drinking it right out of a Thai cow, whose nipples were wrapped in tea bags and ice. Yum.
Some sort of mid-autumn-end-of-the-rains festival was on and everyone was thrilled to go stomping around in the mud on the banks of the Mekong, drink beer, throw darts at balloons and get to ride bumper cars. Quite thrilling.
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