Vientiane

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Polly:

On the Friday we caught a bus to Vientiane, and found a room at a guesthouse on Francois Nginn Street, just set back from the Mekong. The room was basic, but had a fan, a private bathroom, and no creepy crawlies - all for 90,000 Kip. We were about to wander over to the Full Moon Cafe, opposite our guesthouse, in search of food and free WiFi, when we bumped into Stefan and Pernette, who happened to be staying in the same guesthouse. We had a good dinner of ribs, fried fish and sticky rice before heading back for an early night.

The next morning we had a great breakfast at a little cafe down the street. Although the majority of food in Laos has been really disappointing and quite bland, Vientiane seemed to be a little more cosmopolitan, and it showed in their restaurants. Bellies full, we strolled north east, towards some tourist sights, stopping to get some postcards on the way. We walked past a stupa called That Dam (pronounced 'tat'), the heavily guarded US embassy, passed Patuxai (Laos' very own Arc de Triomphe), and finally on to Pha That Luang, Laos' most important national monument. We walked around the grounds, and admired the big gold stupa, but didn't bother going in.

We then abandoned all culture for the day and caught a tuk-tuk to the Sengdara Fitness centre. Here we busted our guts and butts on the gym equipment for an hour or so, followed by a swim, sauna and steam room, and polished it off with a one hour massage. The whole experience was well worth it for four quid, apart from a minor injury I suffered - my masseuse went so crazy on my temples that I was left with matching bruises and scabs on either side. Ouch!

We finished the day with a slap up Indian meal which was amazing, but left us totally stuffed. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, you can't beat a good curry.

On Sunday morning we got up relatively early to catch a tuk-tuk to the airport for our 10:30am flight to Phnom Penh, with Vietnam Airlines. It was only a 45 minute flight, but they still fed us (although it was something unrecognizable and I went without). We arrived in Phnom Penh and purchased our visas on arrival for $20. We then tried to withdraw local money but were only able to get US dollars (we were later to find out that this is Cambodia's main currency). We decided to try and head straight for Siem Reap so shared a tuk-tuk with two Irish guys, through Phnom Penh's crazy highways, passed a traffic accident and into the transport hub near the main market place. From there we found a bus to Siem Reap, departing within the hour...

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