On our vivacious visit to Vientiane, I noticed that what stood out to me was the Americanization and the people of Laos.

Americanization: Laos was established as a French colony, but today, there aren’t many things that are French anymore. There several bakeries (both French AND Scandinavian,) but for the most part, the whole of Vientiane was very western. There were many cafés, and we went to some of them and they had a lot of American dishes that we have at home; pancakes, waffles, and French (haha) toast. Also, instead of the signs being in French of even Lao, they are almost all in English. A tuk-tuk driver sitting at a corner knows English, and everyone else does, and that is why I think that it has a lot of American Culture.

People:  The Lao People are very much like the Thai people; they smile a lot and they are very kind to tourists. There, however, there aren’t students coming up to you and asking to take their picture with you to practice their English, but still, a lot of people say ‘hello’ and stuff like that just to practice. The kids seem to stay to themselves more than the ones in Thailand, yet they still find ways to amuse themselves. An example of that was on the promenade by the big statue; there was a little boy with a beer box, putting it on his head and hopping around in it. He also had a broken umbrella that he used as a toy going upwind with it trailing out behind him. You can see him with his beer box on his head in one of our pictures. However, when he picked up the umbrella, his box flew away in the wind. Too bad for him.

I hope that that was a very vivid and vibrant description of Vientiane.

By the way, do you like my vocabulary?