Vientiane, Paris-ish on the Mekong / Goodbye Laos

First things first, Laos has gained most favored nation status for us here at Sophisticated Alpaca. We have loved the people and landscape of this nation and are a little heartbroken to leave it. But, as Kristi pointed out, we do have a bunch of places to go and who knows, there may be place we love just as much. If so, we are in for a bucket-full of awesome!

Our final day was spent in the Laos Capitol of Vientiane. The first thing that we noticed about the city is its wide, Parisian-style boulevards and the preponderance of French Colonial architecture. There's a reason for this; they were a French colony once. After the 9 days we had spent in northern Laos, the site of a replica of the Arc de Triumph at the end of a 6 lane street was a bit surreal.

We spent the first evening enjoying a wonderful dinner in an outdoor cafe on the banks of the Mekong. The lights of Thailand across the river reflected in the river and we spent a bit longer than we usually do renting out our particular dining table.

The following day we walked the streets of the main city, realizing quite quickly that, much like the rest of Laos, the population is quite small. The entire country has only 6 million people, so I suppose the scale of the city isn't a surprise. All in all, it was a relaxing way to say goodbye to Laos.

-d