Bangkok to Rio

From Vang Vieng we headed over many mountain passes to Luang Prabang, the ancient capital of Laos. The city is on a strip of land between the Mekong and another river, and is filled with temples, and monks, and tourists. We spent four days wandering through buddhist temples, watching river sunsets, and eating well.

Photos from around the city:

These are photos from the morning market. Much of the food eaten in Laos is harvested wild from the forest, so the market was full of unidentifiable forest herbs and vegetables that are found nowhere else in the world.

We learned in Luang Prabang that Lao food is unique - the flavors and ingredients were different than anything either of us had tried before. The strangest new dish was river algae from the Mekong that is dried, pressed into sheets, covered with thin slices of onion, garlic, chili, and sesame seeds, and then deep fried. It's eaten with a paste of red chilis and buffalo skin:

On a day-trip to a waterfall outside town, we ate grilled river fish at the base of the falls, hiked halfway up for the view, then swam in a pool in the river below. The highlight of the day was the rope swing into the river, though the whole thing was pretty fantastic.

One morning, we woke up early to see the monks on their alms rounds. In a ritual that has happened nearly every morning in Luang Prabang for hundreds of years, monks walk through the streets at dawn to collect donations of sticky rice from the town's residends before returning to their temples for breakfast.

Finally, some sunset photos over the Mekong:

Our next stop after Vientiane was Vang Vieng, an absolutely gorgeous town along a river, surrounded by towering limestone peaks full of caves.

Vang Vieng has a strange double identity -- about half the tourists go there for hiking, biking, rafting, etc. The other half go there to get blasted on [insert drug of choice here] while watching endless reruns of Friends in one of several identical TV/drug bars on the main street. Apparently this is a fun activity, and somehow different enough from getting high and watching Friends in your home country that it's worth coming all the way to Laos for.

Well, after about six days of watching Chandler hook up with Monica through an opium-induced haze, we decided we'd had about enough and... wait, our parents are probably reading this.

Actually, the latest we stayed up was 10 pm, and we didn't manage to drink a single Beerlao in the two days we were in town. Sadly, this is true.

We did go for a beautiful but nether-region-bruising 30-kilometer bike ride through the countryside, which we later realized had been recommended in our guidebook as a nice ride for motorbikes.

Some photos:

Beth takes a bike break to benefit her bruised bottom

Jesse manages to avoid the local traffic

Locals riding in style

Gardens on the riverbank

The other major activity in Vang Vieng is floating down 4 km of the river in huge inner tubes. Entrepreneuristic locals have built makeshift bamboo bars along the river where you can stop for beer and enjoy a pleasant MTV-spring-break atmosphere.

We skipped the bars and just floated and appreciated the scenery.

Looking good, if I do say so myself.

Some final Vang Vieng photos:

Bye bye Vietnam, good morning Laos. Rather than take a 24-hour bus ride from Hanoi to Vientiane, we splurged on a flight, hopped on a plane, and stepped off 50 minutes later in what must be the smallest capital city in the world.

Okay, I just googled it, and the smallest capital city in the world is Adamstown in the Pitcairn Islands, population 46.

But Vientiane, the largest city in Laos, seemed smaller and quieter than the smallest town we visited in Vietnam. Makes sense when you realize that Hanoi alone has more residents than the entire country of Laos.

There's not a lot to do in Vientiane, but we had a nice day and a half, starting off with the traditional Beerlao on the banks of the Mekong:

That's Thailand on the other side:

The French ran this place for quite a while and I guess they got kind of homesick, because they built a Lao-style Arc d'Triumph, complete with Buddhist imagery and about 15 t-shirt shops crammed inside the thing:

The arc looks over the so-called "Champs Elysees of the East." Yeah, I really don't know about this one.

While atop the arc we met a young novice monk, Somphone, who was eager to practice his English and asked us to walk back to his temple with him.

He told us about his family -- his parents are farmers in rural northern Laos, and they sent him to Vientiane to study; he hopes to become a tour guide. We exchanged addresses and promised to send him his photo.

Of course, it wouldn't be a blog post without food, so here's the Vientiane night market:

We had ping paa, Mekong river fish stuffed with lemon grass, covered with salt (to keep in the moisture) and grilled. Eaten with sticky rice and chili dipping sauce, like everything else in this country. Delicious.