Vientiane

Little Novice and Icecream Man

Vientiane, the capital of Laos, is no more than a provincial town compared to other capitals of the world There are a lot of Wats, but most of them are fairly new, because the city was looted several times. Nothing compared to VangVieng, the Lao entertainment centre. French colonialism is still present in the names of the streets and there are some nice colonial buildings left, but ugly concrete buildings predominate. However, it was nice to sit in one of the many river restaurants and enjoy a meal. My favourite was green curry consisting of green vegetables, lots of basil, chilis and coconut milk. The national dish is a different one: Laab Lao, minced meat of your choice, seasoned wit lots of mint, garlic, sage, basil and spring onions served with a couple of cucumber slices on a bed of lettuce! My breakfast is fairly different from my German one:noodle soup with chicken bits and a big portion of greens: lettuce,chili, beans and mint leaves - I must admit: I prefer toast with jam & butter, but it is not available here! Lao people are the most friendly I have ever met: Wherever you go people greet you with “sabai dee” it happened to me several times that motorists slowed down next to me in order to ask “Where are you from” “What is your name?” “Where do you want to go?”. …. Children like to clap my hand when I pass - always with a broard smile on their face .It makes me sad that more than 40 % percent of the Lao children are malnutrioned due to lack of proteine and about 30% of the hill tribe population is illiterate. And up to today children and gro wn ups die or lose parts of their body though landmines and clusterbombs that did not explode - and there are still thousands somewhere hidden in the grass. Many hospitals do not have a bloodbank or oxygene to treat badly injured people so that they are left to die. Every new US-President and highranking general should pay a visit to the COPE -center in Vientiane and percieve what their decisions meant to real people.