Helloooo Laos

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The bus dropped us on the Lao side of the river and we were bombarded with offers of taxi’s, tuk-tuks and buses to Vientiane and we eventually settled on a shared ride into the city for 40 THB each. We eventually found a room – not a great room but it was cheap! Next door was a smoothie bar where we discovered possibly the best taste that exists anywhere in the world – their strawberry smoothie.

We dropped off our passports at a nearby agency to get our visas for Vietnam then took a walk around the city centre. Vientiane doesn’t feel like a city, more like a town and certainly not like a capital city. We had lunch at a Japanese place and accidently ended up ordering a dish that came with about 8 side dishes which we couldn’t finish and felt a bit silly 😊

In the evening we took a walk to the ‘night market’ which was probably the smallest market we have seen anywhere and was pretty disappointing. We headed back the centre of town and got online for a while before finding a bar for a few Beer Lao.

We were still feeling pretty lazy the next day but by mid-morning made it to the bus stop and caught the local bus to Buddha Park which has a collection of religious sculptures like the place we had visited in Nong Khai just across the river. From the park we could actually see where we had stood looking across the river in Thailand just two days ago. In the evening we picked up our visas then had dinner at one of the many riverside food vendors – we chose the one with the comfy floor cushions!

We went for breakfast next door so that we could have one last strawberry smoothie. This is where we got chatting to a young American guy who was living in Thailand and had come over to renew his visa. It was time to leave Vientiane so we made our way to the bus station and hopped on a local bus to Vang Vieng.

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Photos

fairground ride
at night market

Inflatable slides
Ang was considering joining in...

Angelo's Fave
Noodle soup with beef at a mere 70p