To say that I flew half way around the world to visit Southeast Asia for the first time, and the biggest highlight of the first city I experienced was a gym seems pretty ‘stupid American’… but bear with me.
 
As we drove up the block to our hotel in a taxi from the airport, I noticed a little hole in the wall place that seemed to have weightlifting equipment right out of Venice Beach in the 1970s. The building they were housed in did not have doors, and the machines looked like they were going to crumble to pieces at any minute. Immediately, I thought this was the coolest thing I had ever seen – as was mentioned in the first post ‘How We Got Here’, I’m a bit of a fitness nerd. Unfortunately, I was a bit too exhausted from the 2 days of traveling from NY to Vientiane to go work out there immediately, but we will get to that. That night we just walked into the main part of the city, got dinner and crashed into bed.
 
The next day, we explored some of the different Wats across the town (getting lost in the sweltering heat along the way), before heading back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner. As Hillary rested, I knew it was the perfect time for me to check out the gym. For 15,000 kip (less than $2), I was able to work out as long as I wanted and got a half gallon water bottle, which blew my mind considering the prices for day passes at gyms in the US. Immediately upon starting my workout, I was overcome with a sense of astonishment and realization about the world (I also realized they did not typically see many non-Lao people in that gym). I became aware that no matter what someone’s upbringing, way of life, or means in this world, there are shared importances and interests among us all. I watched as a group of 3 Lao teenagers checked out their ‘muscles’ in the mirror, making fun of each other and trying to show which was in the best shape. I also enjoyed trying to communicate with them as we tried to share the limited equipment in the gym amicably, and as they laughed at the white boy struggling to balance on the bench that was missing more than a few screws. While the workout itself was not great, the experience of realizing something about life and bonding in a weird way with these few teenagers sharing the space with me was priceless.

Our third day in Vientiane, we traveled to the ‘Buddha Park’, which is basically a field of 200+ Buddhist and Hindu statues that has been assembled outside of the city. It was a very cool experience and the bus ride home is when the woman shared the lettuce wraps with us (see Hillary’s post for more details). We followed that up with a great meal in a local market, before spending the rest of our time in Vientiane just walking around and enjoying the city itself (as well as a few Beerlao…).

Overall, Vientiane was a great way to start our Southeast Asian adventure, and I am excited to see what else is in store for us as we move north in Laos!