75 km

We have arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos! Never have we been so happy to see a city. Laos is extraordinarily beautiful and the people have been sweet and welcoming, but we needed a bit of a respite from traveling in the wee villages.

Before coming to Laos, we’d heard from other travelers that you don’t go to Laos for the food. It’s not that it’s so bad, but it’s not great either. The Lao people have been conquered, colonized, broken up and put back together by others so many times that they lack a unifying food culture. There are a handful of Lao dishes, but nothing like in other Asian countries. And more than any other country we’ve ridden so far, it is challenging to find vegetarian options. We have mostly been eating sticky rice, omelettes, fried vegetables, or vegetable fried rice.

Right away we found the vegetarian buffet listed in the Lonely Planet Laos and it was awesome. For dinner, we went straight for Indian food. We are finally feeling better and so happy to be able to eat!