Laos was a French Protectorate between 1893 and 1953 (apart from briefly being under Japanese rule in 1945) and hence, as in many parts of south-east Asia, there is a significant French influence.

For example, French is spoken by a significant number of people in Laos. French is used as a diplomatic and commercial language and is also studied by over a third of school students.

Much of the architecture here is also heavily influenced by the French, though a lot did not survive the many years of both internal and external conflict.

What I was most excited about (of course) was the French influence on the Laotian cuisine. A bit like the Vietnamese, which was similarly influenced by the French over many years, you can easily identify how the French have impacted the food here. Bakers, making typically French pastries and breads, dot every city street, and  many of the restaurants have menus which would not be out-of-place in Paris. We even saw a frog in a market yesterday!

Similar to yesterday a morning outing before it got hot seemed like a good idea, so after another delicious breakfast we headed off in a taxi to a ‘morning market’ that was a couple of kilometres from our hotel. The market had some fresh food, but was mostly clothes and, yes, more shoes!

We managed to find the central post office nearby and Dave bought stamps and posted a few post cards he had written yesterday. (including, as usual, one on its way to you Amy!) In light of the virus, they offered glue rather than stamp licking 😉

We spent the next hour wandering the streets to get back to the hotel before the heat of the day. I don’t think we have been down the same street twice, there is just so much to see.

I might have also accidentally, purchased a very delicious French pasty: a pineapple custard ‘snail’. OMG it was good. Back to eating no sugar tomorrow 😉 In the afternoon, we tried, unsuccessfully, to get a tuk-tuk back to the dressmaker, where yesterday I had organised for a dress I like to be copied. We didn’t intend to, but ended up walking all the way there (14,000 steps again today). The dress only needed some small alterations and I was pleased there was a lovely little ‘healthy café’ next door where we had cold drinks and a late lunch.  I really enjoyed my chicken with cashews ($4) and Dave continued his egg-holiday theme by having Fried Eggs and French baguette. ($3.50). My paw-paw shake was delicious, and as we have experienced everywhere in Vientiane, the service was very friendly and efficient. Don’t you love the little handwoven basket that the sticky rice is served in! One difference between Thai and Laotian food is that the Thais use Jasmine Rice, where as in Laos you get short grain sticky rice. I prefer the latter!

Once the sun went down it was cool enough to walk along the Mekong riverside to choose one of the many Barbeque restaurants cooking and serving fresh seafood to order. There were around 30 restaurants side-by-side along an area of at least 200 metres. Each one had a slightly different menu but all had their seafood, meat and vegetables on display with ice out the front to entice you in. Of course I was closely looking for freshness and used my rule of following a crowd to make our choice. Since we had a substantial and late lunch, we only ordered a few things including freshly grilled prawns, beef skewers, hot chips (!!) and fried vegetables. All was really delicious, but the prawns dipped in an extremely spicy and garlicy sauce was my favourite. Imagine getting 6 freshly barbequed king  prawns served to you looking over the water for less than A$10!

Prawns, before and after:

Another gorgeous sunset:

Some late night entertainment… the Karaoke bar next door keeps us entertained from our hotel room till late into the night!

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That will no doubt lull us off to sleep so we are rested and ready for our trip back to Thailand tomorrow.

Sara x