Vientiane....Day 1

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It was an early start for us. Our flight was due to leave from KL to Vientiane at 7.30 in the morning but what woke us up was the brawl that was occuring in front of a night club a few doors up from our hotel. Guess some things are the same no matter where you go. It was surprising even with a 5.30 arrival LCCT was extremely busy and was only going to get busier over the next couple of hours. Check-in was not available when we arrived so we waited on seats outside the secured area. There were people all around busily weighing bags and having their bags packaged up for travel. Eventually check-in opened and we were able to hand over our checked in luggage. Breakfast was the next item on the agenda. by now there were people everywhere and we decided to settle on Malaysian Maccas for breakfast as it seemed the service here was the quickest. Unlike Australia the prices on the board do not include government tax and any service charges.

After breakfast with the usual disgusting Maccas coffee....no McCafe at LCCT....we headed off to find our boarding gate. The entrance was blocked by what appeared to be Police and only a few people were being allowed to enter. We were told we would be allowed entry at 7.00 to wait for our plane. 7.00am soon passed and still none of the people heading to Laos had been allowed to enter. We had worked out that entry wasn't permitted into the lounge until about 10 minutes before boarding. There never seemed to be any announcement for what flight was boarding and it appeared you just kept showing your boarding pass and eventually it was your turn. Immigration was very efficient though and every one seemed to be processed in heaps of time to catch the flight. neither of us I think were sad to be leaving Kuala Lumpur. Although the couple of days we spent there were pleasant and we had seen some of the sights the city had never really seemed to grow on us.

The flight to Vientiane was uneventful and the AirAsia X staff were as friendly and efficient as always. Arrival at Wattay International airport was exciting and we got to see the type of plane we would traveling on in a few days to Phonsavan. Not so scary after all. The runway is being extended I guess with the anticipation of the increasing tourism and business interest in Laos. The plane taxied in and we were quickly on our way to immigration across the tarmac and up some stairs. Immigration consisted of one long desk with immigration officials sitting in a row. There were heaps of tables for people to fill out the visa on arrival form. Visa costs were dependent on your nationality, and were payable in preferably US dollars, Euros or Thai Baht, and exact weight needed. The immigration officers were very efficient and anyone without sufficient funds in the right currency were escorted to an ATM machine that I presume has been set up for this exact purpose. After filling in the immigration form you proceeded down the line of immigration officers. You handed your passport and passport size photo to the first who scrutinised it, wrote something on a piece of paper and then passed it the next. Anyone who didn't have an extra passport photo could pay $US1 for the photo in their passport to be copied. The second immigration officer then scrutinised your passport, wrote some more and and requested payment of the correct fee. After payment your passport was passed to a third immigration officer who stamped your passport and handed it back to you. You then had to proceed to another immigration counter for the newly stamped passport to be checked and stamped with an entry sticker that was dated. Although it sounds time consuming the whole process was quite quick and 20 minutes later we were off to collect our bags and head to customs.

The baggage carousel is not very big in Wattay Airport so someone is employed to remove the bags and stack them on the floor before they go around the carousel more than once. After baggage collection we headed off to Customs only to find the entire area empty, exchanged some money to catch a taxi into town and thus was our uneventful entry into Laos. Taxi fare was a fixed rate and paid for at a taxi stand and the driver was already there waiting for custom. On the short drive into the main centre of Vientiane he gave us some quick lessons on pronunciation of common words and tourist spots. He spoke more English then we spoke Laotian, but not much. He was extremely friendly though and always laughing and it was a wonderful welcome to Vientiane.

We stayed at the InterCity Hotel right on the riverfront. It had quite mixed review but we got it for a really good price on Agoda. Our room wasn't ready so we left our bags with the friendly desk staff and wandered down having a look at the riverfront. Even though it was supposedly winter the day was very warm. After about an hours wandering we checked into our room and were very happy as the room was very nice and had a great view over the Mekong. It would be a spectacular view in the wet when the river is full...but all we could really see was the river off a bit in the distance. In the afternoon we wandered around a bit more along the riverside and had dinner that night in a wonderful Indian restaurant we would return to again.

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Photos

Photo 1
King Anouvong - Mekong River - Vientiane

Photo 3
Inter City Hotel Vientiane

Photo 2
Sunset on the Mekong - Vientiane