As I was here just 6 months ago, I had no major things lined up in the Vientiane except to meet a friend (it was more of a logical stop to break up all that travelling). As I was walking around in the cold trying to find my accommodation, I felt nothing much had changed (not that I had expected anything to); the locals and tourists were still partying in the nation's capital as usual. Decided to settle for Syri 1 Guest House (80,000kip/S$13.33 per night). This is probably the cheapest option I could find though definitely not the most valued-for-money choice as compared to other Lao cities.

Vientiane was pretty much still in rain and cold mode when I woke up the next morning (when is the damn rain going to stop?!). As I am only meeting my friend in the evening, I had a relatively empty day. Was not really looking forward to walk alot in the city; perhaps I was tired but anyway I had done more than a fair bit of walking when I was here in Oct 2010 (i.e. walked 8kms to and from Pha That Luang!). In the end, I decided to visit the Lao National Museum (10,000kip/S$1.67 per admission) which I missed during the previous trip.

The setup of the museum was more like a photo exhibition; there were actually alot more photograph exhibits as compared to the number of proper exhibits (tourists who were not able to catch the jars in Phonsavan are able to see one here though it had somehow became a wishing well as quite a lot of coins were thrown into it). However, it was interesting to walk in this 2-storey colonial building that was built in the 1920s for the police commissioner while understanding the history/struggles of Laos though some exhibits were lacking in English captions. For those items who did have English explanations, I had fun looking out for politically-motivated captions such as "American Imperialist" and "savagely murdered the Lao people".

After meeting my friend for dinner (yes, I finally had laap pla or fish salad!) and coffee, I strolled back to my guesthouse in central Vientiane. Was approached by a kathoey or lady-boy (maybe she was feeling bored) followed by a tuk-tuk driver who had "kindly" offered to help me find female company. I wondered if I had "lonely" written all over my face. It did not helped when I finally got back to my guesthouse to find out that a BBQ was going on. I did secretly hope that they will invite me; maybe I was really lonely.