{"id":4800,"date":"2012-08-01T01:28:40","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T18:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/?p=4800"},"modified":"2012-08-01T01:46:13","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T18:46:13","slug":"capital-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/2012\/08\/01\/capital-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Capital Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Such different worlds, these two capitals. Vientiane has recently got its (and Loas\u2019) first shopping mall \u2013 about a fifth of the size of one of dozens<\/em> of enormo-shopping domes in Bangkok. There are billboards in Vientiane promoting \u201cVientiane New World\u201d, some kind of waterfront development plan, according to which Vientiane might even get a skyscraper or two. And Bangkok, well\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spilt all too many words gushing over the latter. But I\u2019ve gotta say, given time, Vientiane will get its hooks into you. There\u2019s really nothing much there; but in the end, it\u2019s just Laos, I think. Somehow I\u2019ve fallen in love even with the city unanimously considered the most boring in all of Laos.<\/p>\n

Saturday morning at the Market: is that Benicio del Toro?<\/p>\n

\"benicio\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Saturday afternoon visited the National Museum. Not a patch on Luang Prabang\u2019s National Museum, but pretty nice for a visit. Begins with some dinosaur bones discovered somewhere in Laos, and works its way up to the wars against the \u201cSiamese Marauders\u201d, the \u201cFrench Colonialists\u201d, and the \u201cU.S. Imperialist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite the prohibition of photography\u2026<\/p>\n

\"museum1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2026with captions like these, how could I possibly resist? Be still my heart! I think\u2026is it the best thing in this-here world o\u2019 ours that in 2012 these captions can exist in a major museum in a national capital? Might just be! (Not to mention this is some pretty great black-and-white photography here.)<\/p>\n

\"museum2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"museum3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"museum4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"museum5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"museum6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wandered around after that, and visited a temple I\u2019d not previously, to discover this lovely Buddha image \u2013 one of my faves, I should think.<\/p>\n

\"buddha\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some kids came running up to me, in the Park, just as soon as I began juggling. Usually, kids love to just sit and watch, and decline my offer to give it a try for themselves. But these kids were all for trying it out \u2013 as well as just generally goofing off with the balls. There was even one who was pulling truly marvelous bicycle kicks. There was also one kid that just wanted to watch me juggle, so he kept running around slapping the other kids on their heads, and taking the balls from them and returning them to me to juggle with again.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, they kept showing me this weird, like, bowing motion with their thumbs. I mean, over and over again, as though it were supposed to mean something to me. I thought I should maybe take some footage, to see if anybody could help me out here. So\u2026how about it? What\u2019s this supposed to mean? Is it some kind of Vientianese gang sign, or\u2026what?<\/p>\n