Vientiane

We had little over 24 hours in Vientiane, which I think marks a change from our lazy 'Friends' watching days in Vang Vieng. We are heading into the final 3 weeks now before Lorna leaves for Ireland and I start my volunteer work in Cambodia. I mentioned before we were having extremely vivid dreams from our malaria tablets. Well, the other night I happened to be a ghost buster with telekinetic powers trying to save my family from a massive poltergeist. Lorna on the other hand dreamt of being late for her brothers wedding and was wearing her dress underneath her hippie pants on the plane home from Asia. Both of us woke up in a sweat.

Anyway, back on topic. Vientiane is a definite change from Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. It's very much a faster paced city where stuff looks like it might actually get done. It also has its own 'Arc de Triomph' in reference to its past relationship with France. To be honest, I didn't have much expectation of the city. So many people told us nothing is happening there and were only passing through to catch a flight out. Such a pity, I think. Now, I'm not saying stay a week but two days at least. Within our first hour we caught a Tuk Tuk out to the COPE centre which is an excellent centre teaching visitors about unexploded ordinance leftover in the Laotian countryside by the US 'secret war'. I actually can't believe a bigger deal hasn't been made of the US bombing in Laos. A massive third of the country still needs to be officially cleared and deemed safe again. The worst thing is that the metal the bombs are made of is worth money as scrap and people, particularly children who don't know any better, are killed and injured trying to make a few extra quid for themselves. The centre teaches you about this and also about how they are giving injured people back their lives with physiotherapy, counseling, prosthetics and occupational therapy. I was only able to donate a few euro on my budget but if the chance arises again I'll try do more. It only costs 75USD in Laos to create a fully functional modern prosthetic limb. Not a lot to give someone back their future. 

The rest of our few hours were spent walking by the Mekong river, visiting the National Lao Museum and climbing up the Laotian Arc de Triomph (I forget the real name). Me and Lorna got into a heavy discussion about 'ladyboys' and what's the big connection with this part of the world. I had read somewhere before that Kathoeys in Thai are grouped together in the 'third gender', not specifically a man or a woman but more belonging to the feminine space. It's a pity because us westerners who don't understand the acceptance of the third gender have turned them into a tourist attraction. We took a look at Wikipedia. Thousands of years ago civilizations were honoring those neither typically 'male' nor 'female' and being plainly heterosexual itself was only a minor part of the plan. In some cases ancient civilizations classified up to 6 different gender types and a hell of a lot more to talk about sexuality apart from gender. From the Greeks to the Incas to the Polynesians, they all accepted and wrote about something as complex as the 'Third Gender' and sexuality. So...why are we having such a hard time with something as straight forward as same sex marriage? 

And that's us in Laos. A good two weeks in the country and still haven't seen enough. If I go back I'd love to spend more time exploring villages and hill top tribes. I'd make sure and visit the prehistoric site of the Plain of Jars and I'd absolutely go down south to see the 4,000 islands and highest waterfalls in South East Asia. Laos is special. It's official name Lao PDR (people's democratic republic) is affectionately known as Lao Please Don't Rush. I am only two hours in Vietnam and beginning to appreciate the 'please don't rush' motto very, very much.