Raining in Vientiane

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Made it to Vientiane after taking a bus that I feel I could probably use a tetanus shot after riding in. It was pouring rain the whole drive and not only was in raining outside but it was also raining in the bus. and on my lap. But I guess you get what you pay for, right? 30,000 kip for one of the local buses (less than 4USD)... hey throw some cattle in the back, some screaming babies, cut out the floor of the bus and we'll Flinstone our asses to Vientiane... for 4 bucks... you got a DEAL!

Anyways, we spent a whole 5 minutes looking for a guest house... frustrated, soaking wet, hungry, etc. We found one. And it has a TV! Holy mole! WITH HBO! Am I seeing things? After watching My Girl like 8 or something this morning (it's in english...hey we take what we can) .. we hopped on some mopeds that we rented and drove towards Buddha Park about 25km from Vientiane. Way cool. If you're ever in the area, definitely check it out. We had a little mishap. And by we, I mean Kayla. She biffed pretty hard twice on a couple of potholes that were hard to see in the rain. She is OK.. just a few scratches on the toes, the motorbike however, well we'll see...

This has been really the only couple of days where it's been raining pretty hard during the day. NO LIKEY.

From here we try to figure out our visas for Vietnam. We are going to ride to the embassy tomorrow and see the price differences from the guesthouse we are staying at. They say it's the same price, but I find that hard to believe since we are constantly being told the same thing from every place that tries to rip us off (aka janky ass bus ride here was 30,000 kip as opposed to 110,000 kip that the guesthouses in Vang Vieng was trying to charge us). The best advice I can give to anyone traveling through Southeast Asia: GO STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE. Do not buy from guesthouses (treks, buses, trains, etc). It seems nice when your transportation claims that they will pick you up from your hotel. how convenient... but it will be much cheaper to just hire a tuktuk and have them take you to the bus station/train station/whatever. We're slowly learning...

Tomorrow's mission: Get visas for Vietnam & buy bus ticket to Hanoi. The question is, to fork out the extra cash for a sleeper bus, or to be cheapskates and opt for a 24 hour bus ride in upright position. Hmmm... stay tuned... enticing.. I know...

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