Vientiane

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Arriving on Thursday evening, by Saturday we were more than ready to leave Vientiane but opting for a 3 working day turn around on our Vietnam visas meant we were staying put until Tuesday. There is the usual 20 or so museums and wats which invade the tourist map and of course the customary night market but other than that there isn't a lot to do in this capital city. We did make use of the compactness though to get a few things done; downloading camera photos at internet cafe, getting to a post office, catching up on emails, toilettries shopping etc. As well as researching and booking our onwards journey.

The city is right on the Mekong river which now looks over to Thailand with some nice views. The promenade seems to be where people flock to in the evening as it hosts both the night market as well as the nightly zumba (or similar) class.

One semi-decent attraction we found was Patuxai, the Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe from the top of which, a good panoramic of the city can be viewed, although its home on Land Zang couldn't be less like the 'Champs Elysee'.

We also visited the natural history museum but this was really a bit of a joke. There was a lot of, i've no doubt interesting, 'stuff' in the museum which was labelled to tell you what it was but never gave an education as to why it was significant and there were lots of jibberish translations. The museum also didn't flow in any way and was generally run down.

2 nights away from leaving we found a great little restaurant just off the river front with our favourite dishes on promo as well as a good price on the beer. After eating we were so entertained by the local karaoke we nearly got locked out of the guest house but it was worth it for the interesting pronunciations of Neil Young, the Beatles and Celine Dion songs we heard.

Whilst we don't feel that Vientiane is by any means a dangerous place to be, it definitely has some seedy and suspicious undertones. There are street girls and lady boys on many corners at night which can feel unsettling and as tourists we felt like prey most of the time. Prices here are clearly tiered, with hardly any prices shown on anything. Plus, all transport seems to be part of a ring which makes it very difficult to get around without feeling cheated. Keeping your wits about you is important and being in control during a discussion about money is the only way to not get completely ripped off.

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