Day 10 - 12 Vientiane

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Days 10-12

Vientiane

On day 10 we travel on to the country's capital, Vientiane (approx. 3.5 hours). Life in Vientiane is relaxed with daily affairs conducted at a slow pace. Visit Laos' most important national monument, Pha That Luang, or meander down dusty riverside tracks to find villages full of friendly children, dogs and chickens. A visit to Vientiane's vibrant, colourful morning market (which incidentally is open all day!) is a chance to look for local treasures. A great way to round off the day is by enjoying a spectacular sunset over the Mekong at one of the many stilt restaurants along the riverbank.

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Arrived at about 7pm and dropped our bags off and headed to the river front for some food in little raised huts. The meals were huge but we were ready for it after all that traveling.

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Woke up about 7am, had breakie and then left on our orientation tour of the capitol city. We went to a temple with over 10,000 Buddha images - amazing and walked past the government building for the whole of Laos. Then we walked to and went up to the top of the war monument and got a great view of the entire city. At the top there were 3monks, all brothers, who we chatted with, their English was astonishing plus they came from Luang Prabang.

Tim and I went to look at the huge day market and purchased some sunglasses ('D & G and 'Ray Ban') and got loast trying to find the stalls again.

Went for lunch by the Mekong and I got a really big bowl of veggie noodle soup for under 90p, couldn't finish it lol. After we walked along the river and looked around the side streets of the city.

We went for a drink in the early evening before meeting up with the gang again at about 5.20pm to watch the sunset over the Mekong - truely breathtaking, the colours in the sky were undescribable. After which we went for a meal with everyone to a restaurant run by a french guy. Food was lovely but I didn't (Kaz) feel too well. We went back to the raised little huts. I went to the toilets there and they were literally a bamboo hut lol. I left early due to my head ache but Tim stayed with the guys for a couple of beers. Then off to dream land.

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Got up about 7am and had inclusive breakie and caught mini bus to Lak Sao about 8.30am. On way we stopped for lunch at a little village in the middle of no where and it was scorching hot. Before lunch we got stopped by the police to check the drivers docs (or so we think) - quite scary as the police have pistols lol. Also I made a little note to myself in my diary not to try to get any sleep on that mini busas the roads in Laos are mainly dirt tracks with huge pot holes. Crossed a couple of errie looking bridges with only two planks to support the buses weight whilest trying to avoid suicidal cows. Also passed a land slide which had happened a few of weeks ago and when it happen the people were stuck on that road for nealy 2 weeks!

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Photos

Sunset
Shame the camera could catch its real beauty