Sun 04/01/09 23:37
We got into Vietiane on about the 29th of January, but for the life of me I don’t know the exact date. I do know that I spent New Years Eve and left on New Years, we were there for about two or three nights, so that puts the date that we got into the city on or about the 29th. Vietiane is the capital city of Laos, so it’s a little more cosmopolitan than many of the other cities that we’ve been to on this trip… except for Bangkok that is.
For the most part it was a fun city, it is on the bank of the Mekong and directly across the river from Thailand. There was a lot of preparation for the upcoming New Years Eve, the town center was being set up for a live music festival, and it seemed that there were decorations everywhere. Like Bangkok, it seems that capitalism is alive and well in Vietiane. Shops are everywhere and the general speed of life is very fast, but the people seem to have taken it all in step, they move fast, but have a very mellow outlook on life. They deal with tourists with a smile or nod and are generally friendly. There are hundreds of tourists everywhere you go, so many that it seems almost unnatural. Except for a few attractions there isn’t a lot to see, and I took pictures of nearly everything that I thought was interesting. They have an arch, similar to the Arc de Triumph in Paris, but smaller. According to what I read it was built with cement that was initially planned to build a runway for the American Air Force, but was donated instead to the Laos people, so they build the Arch as a memorial for their soldiers. It was very cool.
On New Years Eve we headed down to the town square to usher in 2009, but we couldn’t find any seats… the band was already playing and it was tough finding anyplace to settle into, until we found a place on the Mekong, that had a bonfire going, and better yet, it was serving free beer. . We were there for a few hours and then the fireworks started. It really turned out to be almost perfect, about 100 people dancing to loud music around a bonfire watching fireworks. I met some new people and got an email address, and was kind of set up with a Laos girl, so I was having fun.
About 1 we headed to a disco and bar across the town. We stayed there for a few hours and in general it was a lot of fun. I have a little bit of a hard time partying at my age. I just feel out of place sometimes, and at the disco I kind of had to force myself to have fun. The Laos girl that I was introduced to was there and we hung out for a while, but nothing really happened.
The next morning we left for the border of Vietnam.
