Aurophobia

We were back in Vientienne in no time flat, and Toom's brother was waiting for us at the airport. We drove to a different hotel than the one we stayed at before — Rick's "other" choice — the Vansana Hotel, out from the middle of town a little bit.

Really gorgeous place... especially for $25 per night. There were covered walkways leading through tightly-packed gardens to various parts of the hotel, including swimming pool with full-service restaurant right beside it, massage parlor, night club, and spa. Our rooms were right next to the pool, and were very nicely decorated. We had (as I forgot to mention... always had in every hotel we stayed at in Laos) full cable television, with CNN, Discovery Channel, ESPN, et cetera.

It was getting on in the day, and the girls rode off with Toom's brother to fetch the motorcycles. Rick and I immediately hit the pool where we had a long discussion about how crazy our government is now compared to back in the 1960s. We had Beer Lao served to us by a pretty barmaid while we soaked in the pool.

When the girls got back, we went to our rooms, got dressed, and then walked all of 20 feet to a table laid out for us next to the pool where we had dinner. Unfortunatley, the food wasn't particularly great. (Not bad... just not far above average.)

After dinner, we went out on the motorcycles to the Samlor Bar, which is one of Vientienne's oldest expatriate hangouts. It was cool/hip in an East Village kind of vibe... well, except for the people of course: All older men reading newspapers. Kind of clashed with The Chemical Brothers playing on the sound system.

After one drink, we went over to The Snack Bar (although everybody calls it The Snake Bar). Here, my frustration level was once again breached.

There was a live band playing. It was the worst live band that has ever played. Anywhere. Their song selection only amplified the annoyance (Elvis' "Fools Rush In" sung so far off key it made me cringe; "Rock Around The Clock" played verrrry slow and — get this — without a single chord change).

This was Lao psy-ops: Music designed to provoke a negative emotional response to the point that you wanted to tear off your ear lobes with ice tongs.

Well, we left... er... I dragged everyone out after one round of beers, and we went home. (Actually, much like the other night at the karaoke strobelight bar, once I got outside and away from the abuse, I was perfectly fine to go do something else, but...) Everyone was tired and so we headed back to the hotel. We were thinking about trying out the night club on the hotel property, but we all pretty much gave it a pass and went back to our rooms.

(I wound up watching "Instinct" with Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr. until about 2:00 a.m. on HBO. It's a "Patch Adams" level of sappy, but Anthony Hopkins is one of my favorite actors.)