Fun times in Vientiane

We arrived in Vientiane at 3pm after a few hours in the car journeying from Thakke in Southern Laos. We checked into our hotel which looked like a construction site from the outside but a palace within.  We found out later that there is no construction going on (thankfully) but they just haven't paid much attention to the exterior.  Our room was enormous which was great!

We dumped our 6 bags & set off to explore.  The night market was just at the end of our street, nestled alongside our favourite Mighty Mekong so we headed that way. The market was still being set up so we wandered along the shore on a road which gets blocked off every afternoon & night so that people can walk & jog - nice! This was the first place that we have seen in SE Asia where people have discernible leisure time & leisure pursuits. We saw a lot of people walking & jogging along the pedestrian path & the road or just hanging out with friends having fun. 

We quickly chanced upon a large kids park which Miss C was very happy about.  The kids were curious about her but as this is the capital where there are innumerate NGOs, presumably with Westerners among the staff, they have probably seen more foreigners than most, even little girls.  C was able to join in a little with some kids which was nice & had a great time 'going on everything'. Like all parks we have encountered in this part of the world, there were several broken pieces of play equipment still in operation. As we continued to play, we saw a beautiful sunset which was lovely & bright.  

By now the market was in full swing so we started to have a look.  There were beautiful hand-woven items for sale everywhere as well as lots of clothes & souvenirs. It seems that this is a primary shopping destination for locals too as we saw lots of purchases made, especially of clothes.  We bought C a balloon (so expensive!!) because of her ill-fated Siem Reap balloon disasters where she had 3 balloons for a total of about a minute & because we were going to be here for a few days so she could keep it in the room.  She was very happy & cuddled it each day & night that we were in Vientiane.  We bought it from a pregnant minority lady so didn't begrudge the clearly highly inflated price.

As we were walking through the market we continued to hear aerobic-class kind of instructions which peaked our curiosity.  Finally I could bear it no longer & had to find the source of the noise. We mounted some steps to the riverside & came across a sea of people exercising in front of the Mekong. There were two large groups of people with more people continuously streaming in.  The classes of zumba-kind of movements are held everyday, irrespective of the weather & are 3000kip (40 cents) to attend.  They have been in play for 20 years having been started by a dancer who went to Thailand to learn her moves.  She has had to bring on some other teachers given how popular these sessions have become.  It was a great thing to watch & a really laudable everyday event.  People of all types were exercising against the backdrop of an expansive Mekong & a gloriously setting sun.  It was joyous experience.

Top 5
1. Stumbling into everyday fun & joy - at the park & on the riverside
2. Seeing so many people exercising in the blistering heat
3. Having the chance to spend a lot of time at a very big market
4. Being able to bring pleasure to C through the device of a balloon - who doesn't love a balloon
5. Enabling C to have some real kid time in a large park with lots of activities