| Vientiane, day 1 |
[Nov. 16th, 2011|05:50 pm]
The Image Collector
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Vientiane, capital of Laos, just over 250,000 people. I've really only had a half day here. My flight arrived at just before noon. I took a quick reconnoiter around the block near the hotel and withdrew 1 million Kip from an ATM (about $125). Then I sat and had some hot and sour fish soup and a Beer Lao while I looked over the Lonely Planet to plan my next stop. After that I took a walk past the US embassy (which I am not allowed to photograph, dammit!), and up one of the main avenues to Patuxai, a giant Laotian ripoff of the Arc De Triomphe. These two shots were taken inside it.
People are very friendly so far, with no heavy handed attempts to sell stuff. I forgot to mention that yesterday in Bangkok, the river next to my hotel was wall to wall carp, all swimming lazily just enough to stay pointed upstream and eat whatever was floating down. Tomorrow I'll walk down to the Mekong and around to the few other sights Vientiane has to offer. Then south. |
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