Sanantone in Laos.

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After waiting almost 2 hours to cross the border at Friendship Bridge, we made it by taxi into Vientiane.Glad we got a taxi, cost 200 baht, as it was teeming down.The Vientiane Garden Hotel was much more modern than we had thought as all the ground floor rooms have just been refurbished & they are starting on the top floor. At the front of the hotel is Si homme guesthouse which was full of backpackers who were on their way to Vang Vieng. We found a nice restaurant overlooking the Mekong called Mekong Balcony, you have to walk through through Mr Minimart to get to it but its very nice inside. Unfortunately it rained most of the time in Vientiane & as there's not a lot to see there it was the best place for us to get the rain.We booked a mini bus to Vang Vieng, good trip, stayed at The Elephant Crossing Hotel, very very nice.Vang Vieng is stunning, the limestone karsts are awesome. Town is well laid out, easy to navigate, there are lots of people on bicycles & small motorbikes.We loved Kangaroo Sunset Bar, good food, cheap drinks, great crowd mostly young backpackers but a few grey nomads like ourselves spending our kids inheritance!! The Nam Song river flows through Vang Vieng & makes a lovely backdrop to the mountains. Booked a ticket on the Vip bus to Luang Prabang leaving at 10am, pickup from the hotel was at 9.30am which was fine but for some reason one of the pickups did'nt show up till almost 11am so we were already an hour late leaving.The bus was reasonably comfy, good a/c, not full so Tony disappeared down the back giving me plenty of room.We made a lunch stop at the usual roadside cafe!! & a half hour wait on the road while they cleared a landslide of which we saw quite a few due to the heavy monsoonal rain but we made it to Luang Prabang by 6pm & took advantage of a set dinner which was included in our price, Tony had red curry duck which is something he would normally never dream of eating & I had steamed fish in ginger, both meals were delicious.We are staying at Luangsay Residence, a beautiful place normally well out of our reach but we got a good deal from Travelzoo so took the plunge!! So this is how the other half live!!! Not hard to take!!! Seriously if you are looking for somewhere special, then this is it.It's bright sunny day outside but very humid, we're off for look round.

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Photos

Vang Vieng
Room at Elephant Crossing Hotel.

Vang Vieng.
Elephant Crossing Hotel.

Vang Vieng
Nam Song River.

Luang Prabang.
Restaurant at Luangsay Residence.