Monks and buddhas, drum and bass

We've been in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, for three days now, and I must say that I've quite enjoyed myself! Lizzie, on the other hand, has not been so fortunate: a cut she got in Vang Vieng got seriously infected, so she's been in loads of pain and had to make a trip to the hospital yesterday for some injections and antibiotics. Nevertheless, she's remained positive in her pain, and is happy to be on the road to recovery.

On the night we arrived, Kevin and Paul wanted to meet up for a game of pool with some girls we'd met on the bus ride down. Lizzie and I agreed to come along, although I had my doubts about a few of these girls. Sure enough, one of them--who'd been to Vientiane before and claimed to know where everything was--ended up leading us from bar to bar looking for a pool table, with no clue where she was going. Lizzie and I got fed up, so we decided to abandon the group and head to a place called Bar Pan Nyang, a rooftop bar described by the Lonely Planet as the place to be if "you're on the pull and/or looking to meet fellow travellers". The bar looked really cool: it was very big, with lots of seating, pool tables and a view of the Mekong River. We noticed that there were many Westerners there, but also many locals; we also noticed that they seemed to be mingling with each other quite well. But then we took a closer look, and realised that there was a complete absence of Western women and Lao men. The tables were filled with one or two Western men, surrounded by five or more Lao women. Hmmm... maybe you should revise that despcription of yours, Lonely Planet!

The next bar we found was a swanky little place called Martini. It was very empty and way too pricey for us, but we sat down anyway because we got chatting to Joi, the Lao barman. Joi works as both an English teacher for Lao kids and a Lao teacher for foreigners. Naturally, we got him to teach us loads of new Lao things (like the days of the week) and had a good laugh while we were at it. Apparently, the "kwai" in "Kwai hak jao" (I love you) should actually be pronounced khoi, as kwai means "buffalo".

The next day, I checked out Wat Si Saket, where I met Monk Phanty (I had a good laugh at that name, too). He was eager to improve his English, so I helped him with some of his reading and chatted with him a bit. He offered to take me to see Buddha Park the following day, and I happily accepted. Hanging out with a monk for a morning was quite a cool experience. We took a public bus, on which I was the only non-Lao person. The bus ride was quite long, and (after the paved road ended) very bumpy. I had to pay for the both of us, since monks don't have any money. It was cool to have a monk as a tour guide, though!

That evening, Lizzie was feeling much better, and we decided to hit up a hip hop/drum and bass concert that was going down at the circus, of all places. The crowd was a mix of Lao people and foreigners of all ages--including lots of children!--not really what you'd expect at this kind of show. The opening act was a Lao hip hop group, formed of about ten guys and one girl, all decked out in usual hip-hop attire. The main act was was X Makeena, a French hip hop/drum and bass group. They put on a really good show--it's been a while since I danced so much! Needless to say, I had my best Lao night on the town!

We will be spending the next few days in Vientiane, waiting for Lizzie to heal up before moving on.