Vientiane

We were once again back on the move, and we took the 8.30am bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane. Google says it’s a 2 hour journey, but it’s a given that it’ll always be at least double that – a lot of the roads in Laos are very bumpy (I will never again moan about potholes in the UK), and sometimes you get to parts of the road that haven’t even been built yet! The drivers therefore take it very slowly and it takes an age. To add to this there’s always the obligatory stop at a roadside restaurant somewhere (usually at a really strange time to eat) – probably something to do with the tour company getting commission. Sometimes its nice to stretch your legs but often you just want to get there.

Vientiane was the first place that we hadn’t booked a hostel for, so we wandered around until we found a really cushty looking hostel. It was £7 a night, which was about £3 more a night than we had been spending everywhere else. But myyy it felt luxurious – the beds were like pods with their own curtains, and the bathrooms even had a make up area with mirrors. Bliss. The mattresses also didn’t feel like rock which was a nice bonus!

We had no idea how long the stop over in Vientiane would be; we arrived at the weekend and had only managed to get our visa applications for Vietnam (our next stop) in on the Friday night as the website was down. So it was a waiting game for them to process.

We had heard some people say that Vientiane was just a stop-over, and there wasn’t really anything worth doing there. Oh myyyy they were so wrong!

First Impressions

We took a stroll to the Mekong river, and found a nice cafe nearby for lunch. Turns out we’d later become regulars at this place- the pumpkin soup was genuinely the best I’ve ever had, so we returned at least 4 more times during our stay!

Vientiane is quite a small city, but seemed to have a lot of charm and we really enjoyed just walking around taking in the sights of the river, the park and the city streets.

That night we took ourselves to a tiny family-run vegan restaurant. They had soy substitutes for meat, which was pretty exciting for Alpa and I as veggies – its great to have free reign of the menu! The food was fantastic, and the family were so lovely. We then were reunited the our friends Mel, Sophie, Val and Nat – all of whom we’d become good pals with during our time in Laos. Our schedules were different so our first night in Vientiane was their last. We went to Earth Bar, the place next to our hostel, for drinks and some ‘traditional Laos music’. Turns out it was 2 locals playing pop covers… but you can’t have it all! They were followed by a Spanish guitarist and singer who was great!

Time to Say Goodbye…

We said farewell to our friends, hoping to catch them somewhere later on the road. Travel friendships are strange because they form very quickly and its easy to become very close to people in a matter of days. Its not uncommon to meet someone and 10 minutes later be going out for dinner with them – a surefire way to get to know each other fast! The downside of that is that it never gets easier saying goodbye. But you never know when you’ll cross paths with people again – its seems to keep happening!

French Influence

On our second day we decided we would take on as much of the city as we could, on foot! It was very hot but we were determined. We first walked to the French-influenced Patuxai, Arc De Triomphe style. We climbed to the top and had great views of the Mekong river, and the Presidential Palace. After a lunch pitstop at our favourite cafe and some incredible iced coffees, we headed to the most moving part of our trip so far.

COPE

From our research, we wanted to check out COPE – a visitors centre, whose mission is to help rehabilitate those affected by UXOs (unexploded ordnance) left from the Vietnam War. We had literally no idea that Laos People’s Democratic Republic is the most bombed country in the world per capita, to date. During the war, 270 million cluster bombs were dropped on Laos, which equates to one every 8 minutes between 1964 and 1973. 80 million of these bombs did not explode upon impact, so many today still remain an active danger to the Laos people. Most of the bomblets are buried under the earth, and won’t be set off just by walking on them. The main causes of explosion are farmers digging on the land; any kind of heat source above land, e.g. from fires for cooking; children discovering them and playing with them, thinking they are toys; and people reliant on finding and selling scrap metal to make a living.

Its estimated that 50,000 people have been affected by these bombs since the war ended, with 40% of those being children. Many of them have lost limbs, or their lives as a result. Cope work with survivors to provide vital resources, including rehabilitation, prosthetics and support.

It was shocking to see how 40 years on from the end of the Vietnam War, people, and predominantly children, are still being affected today. The centre had lots of exhibits and information, and some stories were quite hard to read.

Laos and many other countries, including the UK, are behind a worldwide campaign to eradicate cluster munitions  – the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), pushing for a ban due to the unacceptable civilian harm caused by them. However as of 2018, the United States are yet to sign. Even more shockingly, during the war the US spent $17 million per day (today’s dollars) bombing Laos for 9 years. However, since the war they have only provided $2.7 million per year for bomb clearance in Laos. To put it as a more harrowing statistic, the US spent more in three days dropping bombs on Laos, than they have in the last 15 years clearing them up.*

The whole day was a pretty moving experience, and we of course donated some money towards COPE and the great work that they do to help the people of Laos still affected by UXOs.

Night Market Mexican

On our way back we made a quick temple visit, where we were very lucky to see a Monk giving blessings to the locals; a very authentic experience. We visit so many temples its easy to tire of them, but experiences like this make you really appreciate them.

We needed a bit of perking up the night, so we headed straight to the night market. They had an open air concert where we watched a Thai rock band play! Then we treated ourselves to mexican street food, served by an Aussie guy who chatted to us for…quite a long time…about the things to do when we head down under. The market reminded us quite a bit of Spitalfields, or Metropolitano in Elephant and Castle. So we kind of felt at home! The food was incredible. On our way back, we stopped again at Earth Bar to play some board games before calling it a night.

Buddha Park

The next day we headed to the famous Buddha park! Taxis were rumoured to be charging $20 PER PERSON to take you there, so we walked to the other side of town and took the public bus, for about 80p each way. The bus took an hour and we spent most of the journey there talking to a fascinating elderly Laotian man who had lived in America for the last 30 years and was back visiting his home country.

After a traditional lunch in the park, we got exploring! We climbed to the top of the statue, and on our way down we made a new friend, Youkee – a student studying Business English who wanted to practice his English with us! He introduced us to his friends, and 2 of them were practicing monks! We enjoyed talking to them and took some photos together. They were very sweet and seemed quite fascinated by Western looking girls!

We headed back on the bus, ready for a big night for me…

Earth Bar Gig

I hadn’t played guitar for the whole month we’d been away, and I was starting to get a little twitchy! Luckily, we got talking to David, the owner of our local bar, Earth Bar – he gave my music a listen and offered me a gig! At 9pm I took to the small stage and played an hour set, a mix of covers and original tunes. It was great to play live again, and great to have the lovely faces of Chloe, Alpa, Keven and 2 new friends from Finland (whose names I can’t spell sadly!) in the crowd. The other owner, Ben is a drummer and he joined me for a couple of songs. Halfway through a song one of the strings broke so I called it a night at the end of that song. It was a great experience for my first gig in Asia!

To Leave…or Not to Leave

Departure day had arrived and we were all set to go! Except one small problem. My Visa for Vietnam had been approved…but Chloe and Alpa were still waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

Instead of just killing time, we decided to get a Lao Massage! It couldn’t have been more different to and English massage – the women literally climb all over you, and use their arms, elbows etc – its very effective! I had to ask her twice to be a little more gentle though! A 30 minute massage set me back £5!

After more amazing pumpkin soup (its honestly the best thing ever), we spent the afternoon catching up on life admin: primarily blogging, sorting out photos and videos and researching our next stops. Its not all fun on the road, we still have plenty of boring tasks to do!

The Last Supper

We went out to a pasta place that night, and it was our last meal with our friend Keven. We met him in Chiang Mai, travelled through Thailand together and have spent our time in Laos with him too. This made it pretty hard to say goodbye as we’d become quite good friends – but pasta and wine was a great way to end our time together for now! We then took ourselves to the river and sat on the steps overlooking the Mekong by night, which was pretty mesmerising.

We had one last hurrah at Earth Bar, playing board games until the early hours (a game of Frustration got pretty intense!). Then it was farewell Keven, who was off to explore Southern Laos. We’ll see you somewhere along the road soon!

Goodbye for now, Laos!

The next day Chloe’s Visa was finally granted! We booked the afternoon flight to Hanoi, booked a hostel, grabbed some lunch at our favourite cafe and then we were off in a tuk tuk to the airport – all within the space of 2 hours! We somehow managed to literally run down our kip to the last penny – Alpa had 51 left (50 for tuk tuk) and Chloe had 3 left, so the remaining 4 we bought water at the airport, and left Laos without one Kip to our name. We had read that you should always get rid of the currency before leaving as nowhere will change it, so we smashed that one!

We boarded our Laos Airways flight to Hanoi, our next stop! Despite a delay in boarding, we were all on the plane and in the air within 20 minutes. We even got an inflight meal…on a 50 minute flight! Ryanair, take note. In what felt like moments later, we had landed in Hanoi, full of excitement and anticipation. Hello Vietnam!

*These are all statistics from the notes I made at COPE – I’m uncertain if they are all totally up to date. If you’re interested, check out Legacies of War & also COPE’s website.