Blogs from Vientiane, West, Laos, Asia - page 5

Geo: 17.97, 102.61Breakfast at guest house before heading out for the day. It looks like the breakfast options change a little each day so that today we had an omelette instead of fried eggs. Still a decent breakfast. Sat in the shade of the courtyard eating it was cold enough to be wearing a coat … if you were lucky enough to have one ! Yesterday I took a photo of Jai next to the Eiffel Tower and today we will be walking along the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumphe … well, almost. Leaving the guest house about 08:00 we take a 'jumbo' for the return trip out to Pha That Luang, or Pha Chedi Lokajulamani 'World Precious Sacred Stupa' about 4km north of town. Dating from the 1560s when King Setthathirat moved the ... read more

Geo: 17.97, 102.61Up at 07:00 for breakfast at the guest house before setting out for the morning. A number of people had compained about the breakfast here on TripAdvisor etc but we found it to be fine. Not a help yourself from a buffet type of breakfast but a choice of 2 dishes from a small menu. Between us had croissant, cereal, eggs, bread, fruit, and a couple of coffees and enjoyed it. No complaints.Leaving guest house we pass the Presidential Palace again and head south east. Further along the main road we reach Haw Pha Kaeo, an earlier home of the Emerald Buddha that now takes pride of place in Wat Phra Kaeo, Royal Palace complex, Bangkok. The temple was built in 1565 and used as the royal temple in town till the Thais came ... read more

Après un lever du jour magnifique sur le point de vue il faut reprendre la route objectif arriver à Vientiane en deux jours soit plus de 250 kilomètre! Tout commence par une belle descente la première mission et de rejoindre notre plus vieux compagnons de voyage le Mékong il y aura une belle montagne qui ce mettra devant nous faisant perdre 1h30 et énormément d'énergie mais notre mission de rejoindre Pakson dans la journée sera accomplie ! Le lendemain rebelote et beaucoup de route sur la grande route par très sympathique quoi ! Premier objectif le Bouddha parc, un parc gratuit avec tout plein de statue bien sympathique! Plus que 30 bornes jusqu'à Vientiane le point très cool c'est que malgré que ce soit la capitale elle est très peu étendu et ont reste dans la ... read more

We had initially planned to travel from Thailand to Laos by train but we were obviously relaxing too much into our travels because by the time we went to make arrangements for the overnight sleeper train all the bottom berths had been booked! Whilst I know I can manage in an upper bunk we decided it might be too much of a squeeze for Steve and reverted to our fallback position of going by bus. We bought tickets for the overnight bus, being collected at 4 pm for a bus leaving at 6 pm and scheduled to arrive in Laos at 9.30 the following morning. When the minibus arrived to take us to the coach station it already had passengers and luggage on board. The string-thin office lady gradually manhandled 9 passengers and all their luggage ... read more

When you think of capital cities certain images come to mind; high rises, large roads with traffic, malls, cinemas. Vientiane: home of around 800,000 residents has none of the above. Even popular sites are very limited and can be done in a day. Of course, with it being a Buddhist country there are many temples to visit but people tend to only visit the main few. We were here as it is the gateway to getting into Thailand overland. You can actually see Thailand a short distance away across the Mekong from Vientiane. We're not in Thailand for long however, its just a stop off point for a couple days before our flight to New Delhi, India. Another reason that brought us here was to arrange our visa for India. We would like to say this ... read more