Nov 22-24 2022 |
After contemplating staying another night in my king suite in Vang Vieng, I decided to pull the plug and depart for Vientiane, possibly the most boring capital city in Asia (sorry Canberra).
Following Google Maps, I was all set for the one-hour trip, as presented in the app. Departing Vang Vieng, about 2 km, I rolled up to the toll entrance of the Laos-China Expressway. As I tried to drive through the gate, a lady ran over and frantically told me motorcycles are not allowed on this road. On to Plan B, though Google had no alternate route, and was constantly trying to direct me back to freeway entrances.
One key point to make, is that I had just driven literally thousands of kms on some major routes in northern Laos. And I never experienced the Laos-China Expressway until Vang Vieng. Didn't see any freeway construction either.
It will be interesting to see how the freeway develops. I did cross the new China built railway multiple times on this leg of the journey. Also saw some parallel stretches rail and freeway running together - but no vehicles on either.
Anyways, completed this perfunctory ride, on roads that became increasingly worse closer to
Vientiane. Another highlight was the many people driving on the wrong side of the road (my side).
In 1999, when I first visited Vientiane, it was a sleepy backwater town. And it still is. Did see some Harleys on the roads, and large SUVs, so there must be some action somewhere. KTM's outlet (perhaps the coolest building in the city) is shuttered (and I didn't see a single KTM in Laos). I also made the effort as a tourist, and visited the cities most famous temple, which may date to 300 BC when it was visited by Buddhist missionaries (from India) , and allegedly had 1000 lbs of gold leaf covering it. Another highlight was the 800 year old statue of a Khmer king who reigned over this area at that time (India connect again, Hindu this time).
One highlight of my stay in Vientiane was watching Japan v Germany at a local dive bar with some rabid Nippon fans. Huge win for Japan, good to see.
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