Vientiane – this is the biggest city in Laos??

If Vientiane is the largest city in Laos, I am interested to see how the rest of Laos will look. The capital has been described as “sleepy,” but I would just call it “almost negligible.” Long-term expats have told me that Vientiane has boomed in at least the past seven years. There used to be 4 high-profile banks; now there are 15! Cars are driving recklessly fast and dangerously close to motorbikes! There can be traffic delays of up to ten minutes!

Vientiane has been quite different from Bangkok, but I’m still mostly chilling. I didn’t make it to the Thai embassy in time on Friday to apply for my visa, so I applied for one today. In the interim, I’ve been hanging around my CouchSurfing host’s house, where I have my own bedroom, a king-sized bed, and a bathroom with a (fickle) hot shower. There has been a LOT of drinking with teachers at the international school, various employees of various NGOs, and random Laotian women. People drink a LOT in Lao. My host has been joking about how I’m only awake for 3 hours at a time during the day for a grand total of 6 hours, and the entire time is spent drinking. This is not too far from the truth, I’ll admit. But everyone is drinking all the time! It’s absurd (and great).

Two nights ago, we went out for ghetto poutine at a bar (the Patrick Special, Patrick being my host), and we met a group of dreadlocked French folks playing guitar and wearing diaper pants. We invited them over to sit and have a beer. That turned into inviting them to Patrick’s house to sleep for the week. Turns out they’ve been traveling by bike for two and a half years, starting with a boat trip from Spain to Argentina. They biked all the way up to San Francisco, and I’m not sure how they made it to Laos, but here they are! And they’re circus performers! We held a BBQ in their honor, and they put on a show for us last night. Kebabs and fish were skewered by Laotian women, juggling clubs and acrobats were thrown in the air by French men, and beer and weed were consumed by all. It was a lovely time, minus getting some Lao chili sauce in my eye. Shit is SPICYYYYYY. The burning in my mouth was already making me cry – it was a pain I don’t think I’ve ever experienced – but then getting chili in my eye? Fuckkkk me.

Tomorrow, if I get my passport back, I’m going to start heading up to Vang Vieng, a disgustingly hedonistic tourist hotspot. About 8 tourists die a year or something like that, but that’s what happens when you combine party bros, cheap Beer Lao, drugs, tubing, and shallow rocks. I was thinking about hitchhiking up, but everyone’s told me that Lao people wouldn’t understand the concept of a woman traveling by herself or why I’m standing at the side of the road with my thumb out. The temptation is still there. Point is, I’ll try not to die in Vang Vieng, guys. In fact, I won’t die, so don’t worry!