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Other entries in Vientiane

The new Monkey

Well it's official, there has been a second animal added to my list of animals I hate - well at least animals I have discovered I hate during the course of my trip.

Fortunately this animal seems to be concentrated in Laos, and is avoidable in most other parts of the world.  I guess that's becuase most people know better than to keep roosters in the center of a town!!  Even the capital!!

Myths about roosters:

1)   They crow once, at dawn.

2)   They go 'Cock-a-doodle-do'.

3)   They are not the loudest animal you've ever heard.

TRUTHS about roosters:

1)   No, they crow all the time, whenever the hell they feel like it, including 2am, 3am, 4am... shit, it doesn't matter.

2)   They make a sound like grawwwwwwwwgggiaoweohawethosiaetusdijgsgj.   I have in fact being thinking about this sound a lot, and for those people that can't visualize it, it's 50% a pig being hit with an axe, 30% a monkey being hit with an axe, 10% wolf howl, and 10% cock-a-doodle-do (hey, they do actually sound like that sometimes, a bit).

3)  They are so loud, they can wake you up from a dead stupor with the fear of god in you.

That's it about the roosters - I also forgot to mention something about Vang Vien.  I lost a lot of faith in humanity in Vang Vien.  See there are about 4 resteraunts in the middle that show Friends every hour they are open.  This isn't so bad, ok yes it is, that show is shit, BUT what is really depressing is the 200 combined people sitting in these places watching it.  Half of them are not even eating or drinking, so can't use the 'we came here for dinner'excuse.  Every time I walk past I wonder why the hell they came to Laos, if it were to sit in a shitty resteraunt and watch friends.  Seriously, is there not enough time in normal life to sit and watch crap??  Why waste a second of the trip watching endless Friends.  And before anyone starts to defend them, there are SOO many people in these place, some of them certainly have this problem, not all, but some...

Well I left Vang Vieng on the 28th of Jan (yes i know, I'm seriously behind on the BOD)  and headed to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.  VVE is nice, definately the smallest most laid back capital city i have ever been in.  The tallest building is 9 stories, and there is one of them, the rest are all 3 or smaller.  In the center of town there is a Victory arch, modeled on the Arc de Triomphe in paris.  It has a few Lao features, and was built with mortar given by the Americans that was meant for an airbase!!  A few blocks away from this is an old decaying stupa.  The reason it is old and decaying is (well for one, it's very old) but mainly, it was built to house the spirit that would protect the 7 headed dragon that guarded the city form ever being sacked by the Siamese.  Well the Siamese had their way with city on numerous occasions, and thus the people decided this spirt was obviously a useless bastard, and it wasn't worth maintaining his stupa, making offerings, or anything really, so the result is a black old bust up stupa! 

There is also a very old wat - 400 years - the only building to survive the absolute destruction of the city by those pluck Siamese in the early 1800's.  It has thousands of nices carved all around in the wall, with 2 buddah figures in each niche - it's a very nice and peaceful location.

I also, for the first time in my life, was a millionaire, albeit breifly... I changed 100us dollars into kip, and recieved 1,028,000 Kip!!!  What do you do when you are a millionaire?  well put it on your bed and roll aroud, throw it up in the air, then go and spend it!!  I've never blown a million so fast before!

There is very little else to report from VVE - i spent nearly all the time sitting i my room reading, or wandering about - I didn't talk to a single person or go for drinks once while in the city, so no funny stories to report!!  On feb 3rd i stayed awake all night and headed to the airport for a 6:00am flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia.  The flight supposedly stopped once in Pakse on the way down, but I was asleep - i missed the whole thing more or less, even my free Lao air breakfast!!  Ok, the temples of Angkor is the next post, but it ain't a small one, in fact the whole experience in Cambodia aint a small one, so we'll see when i feel like bashing it out.  but for now, ít's Ak-47 firing time!

Photos / videos of "The new Monkey":