I've fallen really far behind in this blogging - I was in Laos about four months ago now, which I still find hard to believe. I unfortunately don't have time right now to really write, so this post is going to mainly a photo dump. Not all of these photos are mine, but I can't always remember whose they are. I credited them where I could.
Laos marked the middle of my Chinese New Year trip. It was also the largest crowd of the trip, as there were a total of seven us traveling together. I was joined by Sam and Matt, the scholars from Taiwan, Claire, one of the Cambodia scholars, Eryn, the Laos scholar, Gene, the Korea scholar, and Joe, one of Gene's labmates. So we had quite a sizable group.
We started out in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. Eryn works in Vientiane and the rest of us straggled in over two days. The most important parts of life in Laos, as Eryn told us, are eating and drinking, so Matt, Sam, and I (who all came in on the same flight) took a taxi directly from the airport to the restaurant for dinner, where we met Claire and Eryn. I've never seen an airport so close to a major city (no more than half an hour).
We actually spent the first night boiling our clothes. Or at least, Matt and I did, because we suspected we may have scabies, a fun infectious skin disease that we may have picked up from our earlier travels in Vietnam. Turns out, we didn't. Or if we did, the five hours we spent boiling all of our clothes and applying anti-scabies cream killed them. We warned Eryn that we would need to boil a large amount of water, without telling her why, so she asked everyone she knew for a rice machine, kettle, or hot water machine. It worked out well in the end, but it was a silly night.
A Lao Temple
The above photo was from the top of the Patuxai, or Victory Gate, a monument that looks an awful lot like the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Vientiane. It's dedicated to those who died in the struggle for independence against France and was built with American funds and cement meant to go towards the construction of a new airport.
We spent a day in Vientiane, exploring the sites and eating the food, before heading out to Vang Vieng, a backpacker destination a couple of hours from Vientiane by bus. Absolutely beautiful scenery. We did a lot of motorbiking around and enjoying the giant karst mountains.
Vang Vieng is popular with European tourists who, shall we say, have different hobbies than the Lao people who live in the area.
Lao is a Communist one-party state, though it's government is not quite as effective as China's.
Lao Whiskey! Everyone's favorite drink.
It is unclear what animals were in those cages, but the owners did not like us taking pictures of them...
We then returned to Vientiane and had some more fun exploring the city and eating. However, it should be noted that Laos has a curfew. It varies across the country (Vientiane's is 11:30pm) and is sporadically enforced, especially for foreigners, but occasionally...you will get noticed. So it was for us, leaving the beach at about 15 minutes before midnight on a Saturday night. We were accosted by a group of Lao police, almost all of them wearing camo and holding rifles, who believed we had swum over the river for Thailand, despite the fact that all of us were completely dry and, really, it's not like Laos is that hard to enter legally. Eryn spent a lot of time talking to them and explaining our situation, all in Lao, while the rest of us just stood around and tried to look non-threatening. It wasn't entirely successful, as the police forced Gene to unpack his camera bag and show the police all of the contents. The police wanted us to journey down to the station and get out our passports and all sorts of complicated stuff. They also threatened to call our ambassador (not sure how that would've worked out - I'm pretty certain they would've supported us). Eventually they settled on a "fine" of about $50 each. We did not have nearly that much cash on us, so we offered them everything we had in our pockets, about $8 each, and they decided to call it even, wandering away and leaving us alone. We then proceeded to book it back to Eryn's apartment, as we were more than a little high on adrenaline after what just happened. So, that was an interesting experience.
Lao whiskey. It's a bunch of alcohol that has had spices soaking it for a while. Delicious.
Nachos. Because everyone misses nachos. Don't know why they're so hard to find in China...
The banks of the river Mekong at night.
Eryn explaining she doesn't actually know what is in the sauce we're about to eat. But it's delicious anyway, so we forgave her.
Serious time: one of the biggest issues in Laos right now are UXOs - unexploded ordinances. Basically, during the Vietnam War, Laos was also in the midst of a Communist revolution. The US wasn't too happy about this, but we weren't technically at war with Laos. However, American bombers would often flow over the country during bombing runs, as it lay directly between the air bases in Thailand and their targets in Northern Vietnam. It's apparently dangerous to land a plane with unexploded bombs still onboard, so when the bombers had left over bombs, they would often just drop them on Laos on the way back to base. But not all of them exploded on impact, so there are currently thousands of bombs still lying around the country. For the most part, they lie there, until someone: moves them, lights a fire nearby or above them, strikes them accidentally, or tries to sell parts of them as scrap metal. Laos is the most bombed country in the world per capita and the effects are still being felt. It's not a happy museum to visit, the COPE center, but it's worth seeing.
For some reason, there were a heck of a lot of monks riding around in buses while we in Vientiane the second time. Dunno why. But we found it amusing.
I should also note that Lao food is absolutely delicious. It's more similar to Thai than anything else, with a combination of spicy and citrusy sour that's just wonderful. And it's real spicy. Hottest food I've ever eaten was in Lao, an encounter with papaya salad which Sam kindly recorded for posterity. Seriously though, Lao food is fantastic. Laab. Laaaaaab. It's ground or diced meat or fish mixed with spices and delicious.
And that's Laos. An awesome, beautiful, and delicious country.
Laos marked the middle of my Chinese New Year trip. It was also the largest crowd of the trip, as there were a total of seven us traveling together. I was joined by Sam and Matt, the scholars from Taiwan, Claire, one of the Cambodia scholars, Eryn, the Laos scholar, Gene, the Korea scholar, and Joe, one of Gene's labmates. So we had quite a sizable group.
All of us together. Photo credit to Joe Kim.
We started out in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. Eryn works in Vientiane and the rest of us straggled in over two days. The most important parts of life in Laos, as Eryn told us, are eating and drinking, so Matt, Sam, and I (who all came in on the same flight) took a taxi directly from the airport to the restaurant for dinner, where we met Claire and Eryn. I've never seen an airport so close to a major city (no more than half an hour).
Chinese temple in Vientiane! It was crowded because it was Chinese New Year. 
We spent a day in Vientiane, exploring the sites and eating the food, before heading out to Vang Vieng, a backpacker destination a couple of hours from Vientiane by bus. Absolutely beautiful scenery. We did a lot of motorbiking around and enjoying the giant karst mountains.
After breakfast, there's no better way to start the stay than getting that perfect photo.
We then returned to Vientiane and had some more fun exploring the city and eating. However, it should be noted that Laos has a curfew. It varies across the country (Vientiane's is 11:30pm) and is sporadically enforced, especially for foreigners, but occasionally...you will get noticed. So it was for us, leaving the beach at about 15 minutes before midnight on a Saturday night. We were accosted by a group of Lao police, almost all of them wearing camo and holding rifles, who believed we had swum over the river for Thailand, despite the fact that all of us were completely dry and, really, it's not like Laos is that hard to enter legally. Eryn spent a lot of time talking to them and explaining our situation, all in Lao, while the rest of us just stood around and tried to look non-threatening. It wasn't entirely successful, as the police forced Gene to unpack his camera bag and show the police all of the contents. The police wanted us to journey down to the station and get out our passports and all sorts of complicated stuff. They also threatened to call our ambassador (not sure how that would've worked out - I'm pretty certain they would've supported us). Eventually they settled on a "fine" of about $50 each. We did not have nearly that much cash on us, so we offered them everything we had in our pockets, about $8 each, and they decided to call it even, wandering away and leaving us alone. We then proceeded to book it back to Eryn's apartment, as we were more than a little high on adrenaline after what just happened. So, that was an interesting experience.
Motorbikes, Southeast Asia-style. Photo credit to Gene Mereweather.
I should also note that Lao food is absolutely delicious. It's more similar to Thai than anything else, with a combination of spicy and citrusy sour that's just wonderful. And it's real spicy. Hottest food I've ever eaten was in Lao, an encounter with papaya salad which Sam kindly recorded for posterity. Seriously though, Lao food is fantastic. Laab. Laaaaaab. It's ground or diced meat or fish mixed with spices and delicious.
And that's Laos. An awesome, beautiful, and delicious country.
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