On The Road: My Mekong Madness!

So a gazillion years ago when I first began to work on Fleet Street, in the good old days when the Evening Standard was in the Daily Express building aka the Black Lubianka, I read a book called Dispatches by Michael Herr. It was all about the Vietnam war and it made me wish I'd been a journalist in those days and instead of reviewing Kajagoogoo albums for Smash Hits, I wanted to visit the places he wrote about.

I think it was in 1983 or so that I read it, and while the drugs he wrote about were available and imbibed by me on many occasions - including some cracking acid while watching Bowie on the Modern Love tour at Milton Keynes Bowl - I never imagined that one day I might actually see the Mekong River or visit any of the countries that were so vividly described in the book.

But it just goes to show that you never know what the future might hold because here I am, on the banks of the Mekong, writing my very own 'dispatch' and nothing I've read could have prepared me for the sheer awesomeness of the place.

I'd heard that Vientiane - which is where I am - the capital city of Laos, was sleepy, peaceful even, but wow it exceeds all of its pre-publicity.

I left Kuala Lumpur at lunchtime and by late afternoon here I was, sitting by the river watching the amazing sunset you see above. It was almost heartbreaking in its beauty. My guest house booking was a bit screwed up but its a testament to the vibe of the place that I didn't make a huge deal about it, and as a result the situation was resolved and I got a free night's stay.

It might be a city in name but after the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur (and indeed London) Vientiane has more of a village feel, and is wonderfully under-developed. There's no Maccy D's, no Starbucks - although there is a hugely overpriced branch of the Thai brand True coffee, the only place in town that charges for internet access and serves the worst coffee in Vientiane - no huge brand names of any kind. The entire city centre can be traversed on foot, though the cute little tuk tuks are worth a go just because they are really.

There's not a lot to buy except coffee and pastries which is a welcome legacy from the French, and generally delicious food from all over the world not just SE Asia. There's a 'morning' market that runs most of the day, and a shopping centre that sells plastic in all of it's incarnations - plastic 'leather' handbags, 'plastic' gold and silver jewellery, 'plastic' handicrafts. The little shops dotted around town are a much better bet if you do want to stock up on carvings and fabrics.

What they do have a lot of, is temples or Wats, the whole city is Temple-tastic and every single one I have found is fabulous. There seems to be one every five yards and there seems to be barely enough monks to go round! There's something very special about sharing space in the Sim with them though, I felt a great sense of peace praying alongside them.

It's not just the big, fabulous temples, everywhere there are these lovely little shrines that people have outside their homes and businesses.

Another legacy of the French is that all of the 'streets' are either Rue this or Boulevard that, and with the exception of about three roads the rest are little more than dirt tracks! Marvellous!