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We decide to take the bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, we pay the extra for 'the VIP bus', which according to the travel agent will take only 8 hours (the other bus taking 9 hours or more). When we arrive at the bus station I spot the bus and feel relieved that we paid the extra for 'the VIP bus' believing the non VIP bus must be a non VIP tractor bus , the VIP bus looks like it is from the 1980's and we hope that we will make it, it has the "king of bus" sprayed accross the front of it so all could be nice and regal. Saying that Shenton points out that Budweiser is called the king of beers so all may not be so good
About 3 hours into the drive we break down, they (a couple of bus boys and the driver) seem to fix the problem but another hour in and we have broken down 3 more times and it seems like this time it might be serious. We stop at a little town where the people there seem to be glad of our predicament as it means they have doubled their
trading for the month. After about an hour and a half they seem to have welded the problem piece of pipe together and then try to 'glue' it back in place, this doesn't look good. Needless to say 2 minutes later we grind to a shuddering, 'The VIP bus, the King of all breakdowns!!' This time we are lucky as we see another bus and Shenton flags it down. The entire bus deserts the original bus 'VIP', I now know it is an Achronym for 'vehicle is poo poo', and pile onto the new bus, we have to pay again for the trip but by this point we really don't care, we just want to get to Vientiane within the next couple of days.
The views are amazing on the way as we travel through the mountains across Laos. There are many areas of laos that are unspoilt, the jungle still supports large predators, tigers being one, amoung many other animals. Finally we get to Vientiene, the capital, we arrive late at night and take a tuk tuk. There are 5 people on it plus numerous bags, we arrive in the centre of town about 10 minutes later. Now
Shenton must find us somewhere to stay. Being the capital city we are expecting it to be very busy but we are pleasantly surprised to find it full of ladyboys rather than traffic. More chance of being hit by a ladyboy than any type of vehicle, and the lady boys seem real nice, well especially towards Shenton:-) Again there are lots of coffee shops and the french influence is clear to see. Shenton finds a hotel for us with a swimming pool! The hotel is actually not much pricier than the guesthouses he looks at and although it has seen better days it is in a very good location right by the river. The breakfast proves to be interesting and each morning we look forward to see what weird and wonderful things will be on offer, one of the strangest was French Onion soup!
We spend a couple of days exploring the city, but I am exhausted by the constant 40+ degrees of heat and alot of the time is spent either in the hotel room with the AC on or inside coffee shops reading our books and enjoying the coolness. The swimming pool? Well it was like swimming
in warm soup.
We have a day on a bike which is great and we visit some of the local markets and the monument in the city which takes its influence from the Champs Elysees. We walk to the top of this monument and get a great view over the city. We also visit a temple where apparently the hair of the buddha is enshrined. We don't actualy see this venerable lock of hair, but the temple itself is very ornate and worth the visit.
Vietiane city is also full of temples and everywhere we turn there is another temple in sight. Overall we are pleasantly surprised by the city, as I have read some unflattering reveiws. I believe most of these are written by gap year graduates who just want to get to Van Vieng, where they tube, which is basically floating down the river in a tube (tubing) getting as drunk as possible without drowning. They then buy the T shirt and wear it as a badge of honour. A lot of them end up with serious eye infections as they are floating in the local sewer, some enterprising Laos should buy a job lot of
Jungle everywhere
The camera doesn't really capture the scale. swimming goggles and sell them on the back of pictures taken of the eyes of the less fortunate boys and girls. They do not look good and many of them that we have met are struggling to get rid of the problem. Anyhow Vientiene for us is very laid back and the people are all very chilled out and friendly, apart from the heat we have enjoyed our time relaxing in the city by the great Mekong river.
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