After having crossed the border into Laos via the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, I now find myself soaking in 'Vientiane' (pronounced: Viang Chan), the Frenchified capital city of Laos. Yes, I say Frenchified because it's all Rue avenues, French style pavement cafes, sedate traffic, lots of scooters, bakeries selling French breads and even a French wine shop. The colonial buildings are in the French Socialist style and there's also a replica Arc de Triomphe. The only thing that's not French here is the Language - Thank God!
Capital cities are supposed to be sprawling megawatt affairs of mega malls and mega bucks. Not Vientiane. With a population of roughly 200,000 it feels more like a provincial French town. It took me 4 hours to walk down every single street in Central Vientiane and that's it! But it's pretty chilled out though. You know, sip a coffee whilst reading and people watching kinda chilled. I'll be heading north into the countryside shortly where I'm hoping they'll be less of a colonial vibe. But first I need to pop into the Indian Embassy in Vientiane and see whether they'll be kind enough to give me a visa for my planned foray into India later. Let's hope they don't notice the er Pakistani visa stamped in my passport ;-)
