Vientiane

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After 2 days lounging by the pool in Vang Vieng we decided it was time to move on, do something active and give sunburnt Seamus time out of the sun. So Rich, Carrina, Doug & Lainey and ourselves decided to Kayak to Loas capital Vientiane to make onward plans from there.

So on the back of a songthew we collected the rest of the group and headed 2 hours south of Vang Vieng to the starting point of our 15k Kayak. As with all drivers in this part of the world he was a lunatic so it was great to finally get out and onto the water. After our last experience kayaking in New Zealand we were a little apprehensive - it would be another relationship test..... but thankfully this trip was much better adn Tasha followed my instructions this time!!!!!! Again the scenery here in this part of Loas was stunning and we got to float some of the way down, as the waters were low.

After 3 hours of kayaking we got our end point and picked up Songthew transfer truck to Vientaine. This had somehow also turned into a punlic bus and picked up another 6 people along the way. By this point we were crammed in like sardens. The 2 hour journey became almost unbearable even with what little padding we had under our bums.....

Vientiane unfortunetly was another big dissapointment. It was a small enough capital city on the Mekong. There are no shops or good markets, few good bars. The few sights that are there are a drive away and to be honest in the ehat we had little inclination to do anything........We arrived at 4.00pm to find that there was no accomadation available at any of the hotels so we ended up having to stay on an over priced hotewl with only 2 roms between 6 of us. Luckly we all knew each other well at this stage and the boys went in one room and the girls in another. The rooms were unbearably hot and even though the girls got the AC we thay also got the stench of drains from their toilet..

Day 2 in Vientiane ans we had managed to see pretty all the sights - it took about half an hour. There really wasn't much to see or do in Vientiane, unless we missed something. We did manage to find a different hotel the next morning after Doug & lainey went on a search. After being so dissapointed by Loas generally we decided that we weren't going to find what we were looking for and had run out of steam for this place, we decided to head over into Vietnam instead. It took 24 hours to get a Vietnam visa from the embassy and we booked onto a bus the next morning.

It was a 24 hour bus ride but we decided to join Rich and carrina who had the same idea to get away from the heat and to the coast and hopefully beaches of Vietnam. Happy with our decision and visa and bus ticket sorted we headed for Hanoi in nortehrn Vietnam. We had both developed a bit of a dodgy stomach so headed back to our hotel early. There we were greeted witha foul smell of drains in our bedroom again and actually a blocked toilet. The manager said he would sort it - and this meant sending the cleaner lady up into our room with a can of air freshener - helpful. We slept that final night with the toilet full to the rim with Tasha's deposits. Tasha was in a bad way and had to use Rich & Carrina's toilet the next morning - thank you guys!!!!!

Sorry no photo's but we actually didn't take any.....................................

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Comments

[Anna]

Good Easter
Ciao, I'm Anna and I send you the wishes of good Easter, everywhere you are. I follow you in our travel and it's very fantastic. With love your cousin Anna