We arrived to Vientiane (Viang Chan in Lao), the capitol city of Laos late in the afternoon and we were immediately relieved to finally see industry and businesses. Throughout the majority of Laos, we could understand how this country is considered a 3rd World nation, however seeing Vientiane as a thriving city with major automobile and financial industries having offices here was exciting to see for future of Laos. Also, the city is thriving with tourism, which unfortunately meant that guesthouses were very expensive (on our budget anyways) and often full. We had to settle for a very dodgy room for the first night where we were pretty sure we were sleeping on a sagging boxspring. But, it was cheap at only $7/night, as opposed to others that were starting at $20 US. However, after waking
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