June 12, 2008 - Vientiane, Laos

There comes a point where you just don’t feel like looking at another temple, eating at another so-so restaurant, staying at yet another mediocre guest house/hotel…
I reached that point somewhere around the end of Nepal. 4 months down, 4 to go. Not exactly a stellar time to stop enjoying traveling, then again you don’t exactly get to pick when you get tired of something. It wasn’t that I wanted to go home or anything – I’d just lost interest in my surroundings.
I suppose it was to be expected, especially given our break-neck Nepal schedule and hectic month prior to that in India, not to mention getting sick and not completely getting over it before that. I’d hoped our weeklong vacation on the island of Tarutao in Thailand would alter my apathy, but the unfortunate weather and lack of interesting food didn’t really cut it. I did enjoy it, as well as Bangkok and taking the Muay Thai classes, etc. but I still wasn’t back to my usual self. Constantly tired and without any desire to explore these new countries, I worried that this state of being might continue indefinitely. Then we arrived in Vientiane, Laos.
Vientiane is the capital of Laos (pronounced Lao – the French added the silent ‘s’ for their own sense of aesthetic – there is no ‘s’ in the Lao language). The city is not one to rave about in any sense of the term, but it ended up suiting our needs perfectly.
To begin with, it was comparatively clean & modern – paved roads, sturdy well-built buildings. Due to being the capital, and at the receiving end of a whack of international aid, Vientiane is also filled with ex-pats (working for embassies, NGO’s etc.). Large quantities of ex-pats means a dramatic increase in demand for westernized lifestyle supports (ie restaurants/grocery stores/entertainment.). This in turn means a dramatic increase in supply of westernized lifestyle supports to fill that demand (in following with basic economics!). I think that for us it was perhaps this that really served to make Vientiane stand out.
We were only supposed to be in Vientiane for a couple of days. Then I decided to try to edit a film in time for the Vancouver Film Festival. I’d spent time logging all the footage from India etc, had the camera fixed, in fact had done pretty much everything I possibly could to ensure a smooth editing process. Nevertheless, as one should always assume but never does, artistic endeavours such as editing tend to take way longer than planned.
We reached the end of our proposed stay and after an all-nighter I realized there was no way I was going to finish the project in time to leave that day. Same thing happened the next night. Evy figured she might go on ahead but couldn’t muster up the energy that day, and the next day ended up feeling so sick she went to the doctor to confirm her own diagnosis of tonsillitis. This was a debacle unto itself, but I’ll let her explain that one (basically there’s no medical system in Laos – Lonely Planet recommends you fly to Thailand).
So we stayed in Vientiane. Day after day after day. And even though I was very shortly completely sick of editing, and even though our hotel room was a very basic room with window facing a restaurant stovepipe (constant grease fumes) I started to feel better. Evy still ended up leaving prior to me, and those first few days (I ended up staying 5 days even longer than our 10 together) I spent sleeping, watching movies, and generally doing what most people do on a Sunday after having spent months working on some project – relaxing. It was fabulous. Resting, together with the amazingly good western-style food, I think ended up being the perfect combination. By the time I left Vientiane I was sick of my computer, but totally ready to start traveling again – which made it all worth it.
As for the film, well, we’ll see. There were a lot of problems, but I can always hope that it was possible to see beyond them and think it was a semi-reasonable piece. I haven’t been able to look at it since handing it in – I figure whatever delusional state I might have been in when I termed it finished was correct at that time and I feel no need to go back and discover how wrong I might have been. Always look ahead, right?!