We've been in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, for three days, waiting for our Vietnam visas to be valid (when applying for the visa, you have to specify when you'd be arriving, and we had picked the 11th). Vientiane itself is nothing spectacular, although there's some good restaurants, cafes, and shopping. Most important, however, it has fast internet connections, so we've uploaded a ton of new photos.
After the last post, we remembered a number of things we should have mentioned:
Elephants!
How could we forget? One of the highlights of our trek out of Chiang Rai. We went to an elephant camp where we took an hour-long ride on the back of Hang Dee, a towering 28-year-old male. We both enjoyed it immensely, but Jacqueline was particularly thrilled, as it was something she's wanted to do ever since chickening out on riding an elephant when she was three (also in Thailand).
Interesting Meat
On the second night of our trek, our group, having just finished dinner, was sitting around the table and we got on the topic of meats that Jacqueline won't eat (namely, cute animals, such as rabbit, lamb, deer, etc.). This led to a discussion of venison, and whether people liked it (or had even tried it). Our guide, Kuan, had just gotten his own dinner, a dish of meat and greens (something specially prepared for him, as opposed to the significantly more bland dishes they prepared for our Western palates). We asked what he was eating and he replied "golden deer," a local delicacy. He offered everyone a taste, and half the group tried it (J didn't, of course, and I abstained mostly because I felt bad that everyone was eating his dinner). The ones who had had venison before said it tasted gristly and nothing like venison. Then Kuan asked me if I ate "hot dog" in America. A bit confused, I said well yes, I have, and he grinned and pointed at his dish and said "hot dog." After a few minutes of confusion, it came out that the "golden deer" in his dish was indeed dog. Needless to say, some were pretty upset....
Finally, after we left Luang Prabang, we went south to Vang Vieng with the hopes of going climbing there. Apparently the only way to do it is by going with a tour guide, and there was only one company licensed to do this. They had an office in Luang Prabang, so we went in there and were shown a brochure that indicated that, since we were climbing with our own equipment, we could get transportation to the climbing area, a private guide, and lunch for $7/each. When we arrived in Vang Vieng, however, we were told that that price was only for the permit to climb, not for a guide or even transportation to the site. It would be $25 each if we wanted what we had been promised. After a bit of arguing, and a call made back to the office in Luang Prabang, he offered transportation to the site, but nothing else. We were pretty peeved at being so misled, so we said forget it and asked for our money back (we had paid in advance). He did so, grugingly. We were bummed about missing out on what was probably our last chance to climb (we've looked and haven't been able to find anything in Vietnam), but justified it to ourselves by saying that it couldn't have been anywhere near as good as Krabi, anyway.
Ok, we've got to run. We're taking a 22-hour bus to Hanoi, Vietnam. They've told us the bus is comfortable, but we've long ago learned that means nothing in SE Asia.
Cheers,
-b & j
Posted by brad at January 10, 2004 02:56 AM