wanderlust

I arrived this morning in Vientiane, the capital of Laos; this small city of just over 200,000 people feels like stepping back in time. It's slow, lacks chaos, is full of temples and historic sites...something feels amiss here, compared to other capital cities in SE Asia.

I decided to see how far I could stretch a fiver. Turns out, you can go quite far on it. I shared a tuk tuk into the center of the city with a young monk and his grandmother; both put their hands on me and bowed as they stepped out. I was perplexed. Total: 1USD.

Then I withdrew cash at the only ATM in town that I could find. After waiting in line for 20 minutes (yes, it's that popular!), I withdrew 1,500,000 Lao Kip, which is 150USD. Lots of cash is needed here because there are very few ATMs, and acceptance of credit cards outside Vientiane is basically non-existent. Plus I had to pay Lao Airlines 665,000kip for my air ticket to Luang Prabang. Sigh. Easy come, easy go. Total transaction fee: 2USD.

I ate lunch at a local cafe and enjoyed a (at my request) mildly spicy green papaya salad, steamed vegetables served with a fermented crushed fish paste (tastes remarkably better than it sounds), and a large bottle of Beer Lao. Total: 4USD.

I went over my budget by 1USD so I walked back to the hotel. I think Laos is going to agree with me, and that's not just the Beer Lao talking. I have a plan of attack for taking pictures tomorrow; I will spend the day in the city, taking pictures of its temples and sights, and the beautiful people. The Lao are a mix of Khmer, Chinese and Vietnamese ethnicities and are very unique.