Laos photograpghs - December '22 - January '23

First Laos Photo

Flower at temple

1000 Buddha's

Temple at sunset

Hmong new year

Hmong new year

Concrete donated to make a runway. Built a monument with it

Yes, rapids in the Mekong

Mekong

Fisherman, Mekong

Village

Laundry line

Mekong dam - First of nine (proposed)

Locks through dam

Waterfall, Luang Prabang

Waterfall, Luang Prabang

Waterfall, Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang Waterfall

Mekong Morning

Laos Naga

Temple

Worship

5:30am - Monk Breakfast

Monk Breakfast

Monk Breakfast

Bring a Buddha, leave a Buddha

Bring a Buddha, leave a Buddha

New year 2023

French architecture Luang Prabang

Plain of Jars - Site 1

Rice fields - Phonsavan

Plain of Jars - Site 1

Plain of Jars - Site 1

U.S. bomb craters - 1965 to 1974 - Plain of Jars - Site 1

Plain of Jars - Site 2

footbridge

War waste into spoons and trinkets

War waste to trinkets

Imperfect ending to an imperfect beginning

 

January 15 2023,, Bangkok en route

I’m sitting in an airplane station, got a ticket for my destination ….. (sorry Paul Simon)

I really have nothing to say. Munched and went to bed at 9ish for a 4:15am alarm. I really wanted a good sleep before 20 plus hours of airports and metal tubes, I kind of failed at that. Well not an actual F, more like a D+.

I got up and thought the polished tile on the way to the bathroom felt cool under my feet, until I stepped in the bathroom and nearly slipped on my butt or head. The floor in the foyer to the room was wet from a leak in the ceiling. Nice going 4 star hotel.

Check out was the expected paper and plastic exchange. The provided shuttle got me to the airport in record time and check in at JAL seamless. I knew I had lounge access in Tokyo, but didn’t know I had it here too. Nice to be able to get a couple cups of coffee and a nibble before the flight and after the TSA and passport routine.

I looked to see if the NRT to SEA flight had any bulkhead seats. If they did, I would have sacrificed my fancy seats for an economy one to get to Seattle before afternoon. Looking at Seat Alerts dot com showed no bulkhead, and hardly and knee eating seats left on that flight. So instead of a nice BKK – NRT – SEA it’s got and added SFO. Which means instead of getting home around 4pm I’ll get home closer to 8pm.

Oh, well. The lounge here is nice. Daylight is breaking and I’ll whine and cry more later in NRT, but for now things are okay.

Golden Gate Bridge and S.F. Bay

Tokyo went fine. 

Landed, went to the lounge and had a bite and soon time to board the plane to SFO. I did not get the upgrade that I bid $600 on for Business Class, so still in fancy economy. 10 hours and the Golden Gate Bridge was in view.

Clear formalities, grab my luggage. Get past Customs, give my luggage back into the hands of Alaska Air and on to the short 90 minute flight to Seattle.

Get to Seattle, get to baggage claim. Wait 50 minutes and no bag. Luckily I took my Nikon out of it, and it is mostly full of clothes (dirty and otherwise). The nice lady at Alaska Airlines says the bag isn’t where I should be. Well … duh ! They gave me a form and a tag and said if I ever see the bag again, they will deliver it to my home, and have a nice day.

Kind of a nice end cap to the start of the trip.

Got home about hour 30 between beds and slept for 13 hours. Text message said bag in my town and will deliver it when I call them.

So all seems to be done from the trip. Now to talk to JAL about a refund for the non-fancy seats. Some insurance company to cover the Hotels.com insurance room guarantee for the missed first night in Bangkok. Finally to deal with my travel insurance company to get paid for missed and late flights and late luggage. I might gt back to you later on the outcome on those ‘Adventures’

My understanding of Laos history

 

A long time ago there were people living here. I won’t say peacefully since their neighbors were always picking a squabble over the area. Seems this small piece of land is in the way to other pieces of land that the neighbors thought they wanted.

Then in the days when ships moved with the wind the French found the land to the east to their liking, we now call it Vietnam. The French never being satisfied with what the had wanted more for slipped over the mountains and decided that they should own this land too. I guess they would have continued west, but for some strange Siam (now Thailand) thought the British who found that place pretty cool and so decided to not ask the French to take them over too.

So this land that we now think of as two (Laos and Vietnam) was called Indo-China. Why? I don’t know. It is close to China, but nowhere near India. But Indochina it became. The French continued to be French and boss around the local people until … say …. 1939 when the Japanese decided they wanted to boss around some people and Indochina seemed like a groovy place on the way to someplace else, like Malaysia where they had ‘Black gold’, ‘Texas Tea’, oil. So the French went away so the Japanese could play big cheese for a while.

Over the next 6 years the whole world ganged up on Japan and their pals the Germans. The Germans and Japanese finally decided that getting beat up by the whole world was not worth it and went home, leaving Indochina with no big boss. The French thinking that since there was no boss there in 1945 that they would come back and reintroduce Croissant to the area.

For some reason the guys in (now) Vietnam didn’t think that baguettes was in their normal menu and asked the French to please take their frog legs someplace else. The French kinda liked it there and said they would like to stay. Well that didn’t go over well with either side, so for the next 8 or 9 years each side threw rocks at the other side until at Diem Bien Fu the French got tired of getting rocks thrown at them and called King’s Ex and went on their way, but not before cutting the country in half with an imaginary line giving the rock throwers the north half and the Baguette loving locals the southern half.

I think that one part of the world who sent the Japanese and the Germans home was afraid the other half of the world wanted what the Japanese and Germans used to have. So the one half of the world kept propping up the baguette loving leaders in the south.

Meanwhile U.S.A., part of the half that sent the Japanese a packing kept the southern half from uniting with the north half making a whole country. The north half kept sneaking down and to make their half larger. The U.S.A., knowing math that 50/50 is equal and 51/49 is not. So in the early 1960’s sent men with words to the south part to advise and shoo the northerners home. The northerners stomped their feet and refused. So the U.S.A. sent more advisors, but with guns this time. More foot stomping, more Americans until in say 1963 the two sides started throwing rocks and other things at each other for a long time.

So the north guys got tired of getting things tossed at the and decided the best way to visit the south was by going through their neighbors, Laos’ backyard. The outsider Americans call this The Ho Che Min trail or memorial highway or some such. They though it was cheating by the north, so the best way to stop a cheater is to cheat yourself I guess.

So, the ‘Secret War’ was on. Officially not in the Vietnam conflict, but since the Viet Cong were using the eastern edge of Laos to bring men and material to aid them in their war with the south the U.S.A. decided that a weed killer, Agent Orange, and tons upon tons of bombs should be dropped on this route to stop the Vet Cong. Innocent Laos was more heavily bombed that the entire bombs dropped in world war II. Since the bombs were dropped from 35,000 feet and most men can’t consistently hit the toilet bowl from one foot, you can imaging how much this stopped the Viet Cong. That and it is my understanding that if you can’t find your target, it’s better to go home empty, than to land with a load of bombs, so you might as well drop them any old place.

American technology is not 100%, and according to estimates only two thirds of the explosives exploded as planned. This leaves a third of more than all the bombs dropped in WWII waiting to kill, maim and generally terrorize Laos or years to come.

The sign says “Every eight minutes for nine years, bombs were dropped on Laos”. From 1964 to 1973. During this time, Huntley/Brinkley hardly mentioned this (if at all) on the nightly U.S. news.

Still fifty years later people are still getting injured and killed by UXO (UneXploded Ordinance) even with the years of help clearing the area of these still lethal gifts. Looking out a window on a bus in the middle of a field there can be a perfectly circular pond or divot in the earth. This is where they did go off. This area around the Plain of Jars was among the heaviest bomb during that time. Even the UNESCO Plain of Jars sites still have the occasional bomb crater on the site.

In 1994 the immediate Plain of Jars sites 1,, 2 and 3 were declared safe. It only took 30 years to clear a major tourist site. I suppose it might still take a bit longer to fully clear the rest of the country.

The country that wasn’t even in the war.

 

Back to Bangkok

 

January 13, 2023. Phonosavan Laos

… let’s see … where did I leave off? Oh, ya ! Grub.

Craters Restaurant looked interesting. Six huge unexploded, and I hope/presume disarmed, sit on the front steps beckoning travelers in for a bite. Based on the name, you might thing that it is not a place for authentic Lao food, and based on the menu I think you are right. It was heavily weighted to Western comfort food. Burgers, pizza and fries. There were Lao dishes on the menu,, but I think they were there only as an after thought. I ordered my standby unknown foreign restaurant meal, a Club Sandwich. You never know what you’ll get. You are pretty well assured of three pieces of bread and some meat, after that it’s a crap shoot. Sometimes ham, some times bacon, once a whole egg, once the fries were in the sandwich. Craters Club, wasn't too bad, bacon and lettuce and cucumber, no tomato though. The fries were okay, though I did pass on putting Ketchup on the fries. The squeeze bottle looked like it was last squeezed pre COVID.

How was it? In the words of my friend Donald, “It didn’t make me sick” (now there was that Club Sandwich in Cuzco, Peru ……..)

Back to the room an a little Netflix and some Apple TV.

The next day was a day of waiting. Flight was in the early afternoon and not really enough time to go sightseeing or walking around. There was an old Hell’s Angel wannabe who seemed to know his way around the place. I had mooched a cigarette from him the previous day (I did offer and fully intend to pay, really!!), he passed me and offered me one today. I had intended on writing this, but mooched cigarettes come with a price. Conversation.

He was the Australian husband to the Lao hotel manager. He was a mining driller and worked six weeks on and six weeks off, blasting the earth into smaller pieces hoping to find precious or at least useful metal ores. He was back in Lao for another couple of weeks, before returning to Australia, or Mongolia, or ?? Where they wanted him next.

Apparently Australia, or at least his Australia is not very ‘Woke’ yet. I heard things said about the Aborigines that I had heard from deep Southerners 50 yeas ago. I was shocked that people still talked this way, much less thought this way.

The hotel provided a ride to the airport, and I think the driver was expecting a taxi fare sized tip and not a hotel driver tip. I think the word of American tipping has gotten here, even though Lonely Planet says it hasn’t.

By the way, the airport terminal is actually as large as a big 7-11 not a McDonald’s. The puddle jumper 20 minute airplane arrived and landed safely in Vientiane and I didn't tell the passenger in front of me to put their seat back in the upright position.

Out of the plane and into the maw of the taxi gauntlet. I guess seven USD is the fixed rate to hotel. I needed to go to two hotels, the old sewer smelling one and the new hope that there would be a more pleasant odor at the Crown Plaza. This threw off the flat rate and moved it to eleven, I said ten and deal was struck. I handed the taxi wrangler a twenty and there was the most minute nick in the twenty and so it was rejected. I $8, in a five and three ones. That didn’t add up to ten regardless of who’s math you were using. Fumbling around in my Kangaroo pockets I did find enough Kip to pay for the ride.

I got bags from hotel number 1 where they man took my Pawn ticket and returned with my bags in a little bit, with expectant waiting as I got in the taxi. Yes, tipping like COVID has arrived.

The hotel check in went well. The room was nice, with one of those open bathrooms where you can lay in bed and watch your partner shower. I don’t know if this is a new trend in hotel rooms or a Southwest Asia thing.

There was a restaurant that sounded really good on paper in the property. Since I tried the hotel’s online reservation system and kept being old there were no seats available. I wandered down just to make sure, Club Sandwiches two day’s in a row didn’t feel right. It was around 5pm and the place was dead empty. Nobody at the check-in desk, the seating area as I was about to enter the kitchen I did find a somebody. I asked if they had room tonight? Of course ! So much for believing the internet.

I had a glass of wine and a lobster salad, and a beet carpaccio. I have two favorite meals, but I can’t remember a single dish that I’d call a favorite. The Lobster salad was good, but the Beet Carpaccio was outstanding. The flavors of the beets, with a little heat, a couple types of cheeses and some puff balls of something deep fried is a dish that I will think bout and judge others by.

In the morning it was more waiting. (Now the 14^th) for a plane ride to Bangkok. Taxi prices hadn’t changed. Airport check in hadn’t changed, nor Immigration, nor, nor nor. The plane took off and landed safely. Immigration let me in and my luggage was waiting for me.

The hotel at the airport where I had stayed on arriving back in December had an easy check in. I am not sure it I offended the clerk or something, but the room could not be further from the elevators, and is a bit of a walk.

I came down for a drink. But it on my room and went to give the server a tip. She couldn’t break a US five so I went to the front desk to change it. Unacceptable, it was wrinkled, not crisp. I guess they only take ironed bills here and they probably charge to iron the cash.

It’s time to go home. Little things are beginning to bug me more than is warranted.

Up at 4am, to get to the check in by 5 and on the plane at 8am for twenty something hours of fun in the skies and airports across date lines and time zones..

 

Plain of Jars. Finally

 

January 12 2023, Phonosavan, Laos

The plane ride was fine. Cloudy and a touch of rain, I expected it to be a bumpy ride but not bad at all.

It was a 20 minute flight, and of course the American in front of me, needed to recline his seat, because sitting erect for 20 minutes is too much to ask of a body. I didn’t sit back up until after the cabin crew went through their seat belt and seat back checks. They missed him someway. I tapped him on the shoulder asked him to put his seat up. I would hate getting a bloody nose from his seat back if the pilot has a hard landing.

As we were getting off the plane I heard him say to a companion “They made me put my seat up”. I told him it wasn’t they’ it was me. I didn’t want ‘They’ to take my credit away from making him do the correct thing. Of course who do I run into at breakfast today? Yup!

I had to show my passport to get on the domestic air flight, and again when getting off. The government really keeps track on foreigners. Same thing today on the ride to the Plain of Jars.

As soon as I exited the terminal (a building about the size of a big McDonald’s) Mr. Lee leapt on me to hire him to drive me to the hotel. The price was Lao high and American cheap. I just went with it, no bargaining. I was offered a tour by him for a King’s Ransom for today, including lunch and entrance fee. I told him I generally don’t eat lunch, and would pay for my own tickets. He dropped the price by $50. I asked for his phone number and said I’d think about it.

He was too young to have experienced the war, so I asked him how he handled the COVID pandemic. He said that the government made everyone return to their home villages and then basically locked the gates. You lived on what you grew and when the occasional truck brought rice and such. That was it, nothing and no one moved. He sad because of this they had almost no fatalities. I’ll have to Google that later.

At check in the hotel and I talked about a tour, and she asked me Mr. Lee’s price. She beat it by $20, and I’m sure still made a decent profit. This hotel is the most expensive hotel in the city and the cheapest one I’ve stayed in this trip. The room is mostly just that. Twin beds, TV and basic bathroom. The bed is the hardest I can ever remember sleeping on. The A/C heater doesn’t work. I have yet to find the hot water and the room is cold.

Last eve I asked about the heating unit, and was handed a space heater that I am certain not UL approved, with all the buttons and knobs in Chinese. But it worked, as long as I sat next to it.

I walked into town looking for a restaurant and money exchange to get Kip for the tour. The exchange lady, snaked me a bit on the exchange, and then handed me over a million Kip in small bills. I had to count it three times in front of her to make sure it was the right amount.

Next came food. I had a roll and jam at breakfast, and was getting a little hungry. I am not sure if it was too early in the day or not, but all the restaurants had food available and no one was eating. Not a good sign if the locals aren’t eating it. I walked into this huge indoor produce market gawking at the fruits and veggies. I found one stall that had baked goods and there were balls that looked like cream filled doughnut holes. I got five and that was dinner.

Back at the hotel, I watched some Netflix and since the light next to the bed didn’t work, went to sleep and didn’t read anything of my novel as is my general routine.

Morning came and hot water was still MIA. I am not taking a cold shower. So got dressed and went to breakfast. Had some scrambled eggs and bread, made sure it was more substantial than yesterday’s roll. I mentioned there was no hot water, and was asked if I knew to turn the tap towards the left. I didn’t not yell. When I got back the woman at the desk came to assess my inability to turn on a hot water tap and decided the electrician needed to look at the hot water machine, I wonder if he will try the hot water tap first.

The tour van driver arrived at 8:30 and spoke no English. Maybe I should have gone with Mr. Lee after all. Off we went to see Plain of Jars, sites 1, 2 and 3 and the bomb spoon village. The fog or clouds were so thick that I was a bit grumpy that the sun wouldn’t be out. I mean this is one of the main things I came to see in Laos. By the time we got to site 1, the fog had lifted a bit, and I resized that maybe the fog added just the right amount of mystery to any photo I took.

I pretty much had the site to myself there was a small group of people taking selfies in front to the jars, but they soon got tired of seeing their own image and wandered off to other jars to stand next to and take their picture. I guess showing the world how great your life is, is a world wide obsession, even though it is never as good as the pictures imply.

The jars are from 500 BC to 500 CE and there are several theories, but no one has a definitive answer. Burial? Beer? Grain storage? I’m in the ritual pack. These things are large, solid rock and had to be carved with Iron Age tools and placed in high locations, sounds pretty special to me.

More important than that, the electrician declared my hot water tank dead, dead, dead and I now have a different room.

I wandered around looking and taking non-selfies. And worked my way around the site, being sure to stay on well trod paths. There are several large bomb craters within the site and even though they say the site is clean of unexploded weapons, I’m not a big believer in 100% all the time.

Then on to site 2. Site 1 is the actual ‘Plain’ of Jars. Situated on a large flat cleared area around a hill. Site 2 is on a hilltop st among a nice copse of trees. There was one or two bomb craters, but they missed the main area. Some of the jars were cracked and some had trees growing out of them. I was completely alone for a while. Nice and peaceful and really feeling special having the entire site to myself.

Site 3 is also on a hill and a little more interesting to get to, you need to cross a couple wooden foot bridges and walk along the low dykes between the rice paddies. By now rock pots are kind of losing their allure to me, so back to the mini van and off to the ‘Spoon Village’

Except the spoon village was closed. I guess it tuned into a tourist attraction from it original purpose and there aren’t many tourists these days it seems. The Spoon Villages used to scour the area for downed aircraft and bomb casings. Then they would melt the Aluminum down pour it into a mold and take the spoon and sell them to the restaurants in the big city. Now you can buy bracelets, key chain fobs and bottle openers at the night market in the big cities. I think that after 0 years, the aluminum has all (or mostly all) been recovered and they are using recycled aluminum now days. Whether they are or not, it makes for a good story.

Gonna go find some grub

 

Bomb Craters

On the rail again

January 11 2023 – Vientiane Laos

Really nothing to report. Mostly waiting. The only train available was the 630pm to Vientiane I had hoped for an earlier train, but all the earlier ones were sold out, and I felt lucky to get the last train of the night.

Get up, make Starbucks, shower and stuff, breakfast, kill time until check out time. Kill more time until the taxi to the train station. I did get caught up on the blog and several Trip Advisor hotel reviews while killing time.

The taxi ride was much longer than I remembered when coming in. It was so far away I checked Google maps one time to make sure we were going in the right direction. I have to remember that U.S. towns and cities were most often built around the rail system unless they were a port city. So access to the train station is convenient to town. The Lao train system was finished in 2019 and is at least 10km if not 30 or 40km from the city that claims them.

You know the routine at the train station from before and soon I am boarding car #8. The last trip on the train I was told I had a first class seat, instead I find out now that I had the equivalent of an economy bulkhead seat. Three abreast with an aisle and three more. This trip it was actual first class. Two, aisle, two. The seats were plush, reclined and had pull out tray tables.

My luggage somehow has gained weight over the trip, as have I, and I needed to beg the assistance of the man sitting in front of me to get my large bag on the overhead rack. He actually seemed happy to help.

The train ride was smooth and quick. An hour and a half, that the bus schedule called for overnight 12 hours. We stopped at one city on the way and the man in front of me went up and helped two other women with their over-sized luggage. His wife laughed and said “He loves doing that”. He offered mine but it wasn’t my stop.

At my stop there was a husband an wife traveling together. He grabbed his luggage and actually stood and watched her as she struggled to reach hey bags and then man handle them down. Prick! The woman and husband with the toddler, sitting a bit up from me. He only had one arm, so I’ll give him a break on helping her with the overhead luggage, but she was short, had a handful of kid and wasn’t doing so well with t. I stepped across the aisle and stood on the seat and got her luggage down as some guy was forcing his way past, woman, baby, me and luggage. It looked him in the eye and said “Just wait a damn second!” Obviously this translated into several languages, because his eyes got big and he stopped until I got her bag out of the aisle, before shoving his way he rest of the way off the car. He thanked me, and off to further adventures.

The mini bus, tuk tuk stands were a madhouse. Some out pointed to an empty mini bus quoted me a exorbitant Lao price and very reasonable U.S. rate to my hotel. I didn’t feel like negotiating for two or thee dollars difference and hopped in. Off we went, with the help of my typing my hotel into Google Maps for the driver, in about 30 or 40 minutes we wee at my hotel. This is where I discovered that a 8gb cellular data plan does not last forever. I’ll live with WI-fi for now since tomorrow is the only day that I really might need it and he process to set up a new e Sim requires usage of my brain and it is currently on break.

Hotel check in was simple since they already had my info and passport on file, just a signature on the register and off to room 405.

Nice big room that smelled slightly of sewer. I went to the restaurant on the roof that my travel companion had raved about. I ordered a Vodka tonic, to find out they had 5 kinds of Vodka and zero kinds of tonic water. Of course I could have a cocktail, like a Tequila Sunset or Mai Ti, but a Vodka Tonic was out of the question.

I had an appetizer and a bowl of soup and called it quits for the night.

Today more waiting. Taking a plane to the Plain Of Jars and that requires a lot of waiting, but at least it isn’t with knees under chin of a bumpy bus ride. Plane due in 30 minutes so I’ll pause this for now.

 

Where's the Truffles ?

 

January 10 2023, Luang Prabang

After an afternoon of loafing around the afternoon away. I was a little sweaty and kind of proud I finally got that darned nail fixed.

I had made reservations for dinner at Gaspard highly recommended French Lao Fusion eatery. It was the other side of the night market and by now my sneakers knew the way without thought from me. Reservations were for 7pm, but at 5pm I got bored of my room.

Two minutes to slip on my sandals and Scott-e kangaroo vest. I never counted pockets on the vest, but I don’t need a purse when wearing it. One pocket for US Dollars, one pocket for Passport and credit cards, one pocket for big local money, one pocket for local spending money. One pocket for iPhone, even a pocket big enough for my e-Reader Nook. All this and I don’t look like a Sherpa ascending Everest.

Up the street to the funny old French car, turn right and keep walking. Slowly making my way down the street, I espy a man sitting behind a box smoking. I asked (pantomimed) him if he could spare one and gave him a bill worth about 6 cents. He took is and offered me a second one. One was enough.

A few blocks later I found a step to sit on and watched the vendors start setting up for the evening. By day this street is a pretty busy street flanked with tourists and filled with tuk tuks, trucks and motorbikes. At 5pm the street is blocked off at both ends to vehicle traffic and out come the pop up patios. Then all the merchandise is unladen and laid out for display. Both sides of the street are lined for 10 or so blocks by the ten by ten foot stores. The aisle down the middle is maybe 20 feet wide and come dark it is jammed from store tarp to store tarp with my fellow tourists. None paying attention to their surrounding or other people.

Weaving and snaking and occasionally jostling my way through I ran the gauntlet and came out unscathed at the end closest to the place I made reservation at.

Arriving at 6pm not 7pm I had the place to myself except for the staff. I had come here because the duck was supposed to be good. Gaspards is absolutely beautiful, the service beyond excellent. The food not quite to the same level, and the price astronomical by Laos standards. The raw Buffalo carpacccio I misread as Buffalo Cheese Caprese. It was pretty darned good. The mushroom soup with Truffles was missing the Truffles. The only truffle I found was when I put truffle salt on the soup. The duck, well it was just a shame that the duck had to die for that mediocre plate of food. I expected Gourmet and got Gour-missed. (Hey! That’s a great line!)

The bill by US prices was a little on the low side and by Lao standards half a months salary for the average middle class Lao. The bill structure was in $ USD, then extra if you pay in local Kip and a different price if you pay by credit card. I reached in my USD pocket and pulled out a fifty and a twenty. “Will you take the change in Kip?” - sigh! - ‘Sure why not?’ moments later “Madame I can not accept this fifty it has a micro smudge on it from some bank, and my bank will not accept it”. - Sigh! 1,2,3, ……. Ok. Patience if running low. I tossed my Amex down. “We only accept Visa”. - Humph! - ‘Here is a fan of credit cards take your pick!’. There goes the meal cost, plus the restaurant’s credit card surcharge, plus foreign transfer fee, all for a blue smudge on a fifty.

Back through the throng of Night Market shoppers. I could have avoided them but even though intellectually I know they are safe after dark, emotionally I am still cautious. Back at the hotel a bit of a novel and around 10pm good night.

So far today go slow, morning routine, Starbucks in a cup and around 10am across the street for breakfast overlooking the Mekong. Kill time until 1159am (check out noon) to kill more time until 6pm’ish for the train to Vientiane.