Cafe Central - Vientiane

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After waiting for over an hour for our 7am bus we finally boarded and arrived in the capital, Vientiane, just after lunch. We then had to wait in a jumbo tuk tuk for your man to fill it to make his journey beneficial and after a slight detour to the other bus station the other side of town, we finally made it to the river side and our home for our stay in Vientiane, Orchid Guesthouse - a massive 135,000kip a nights gulp!!!! Apparently all guesthouses have upped their prices in time for the South East Asia Games which kick off in a week.

We dumped our stuff and headed off for some food - Pizza for G and Steak for T, washed down with some yummy red wine!!!! Heaven!!!! After this we headed to one of Vientiane’s many cafes. While enjoying our coffee and chocolate milkshake we bumped into Serena and Matt a couple who we’ve bumped into along the way through Laos. So many drinks later we were drunk and watching football in an English pub, where it felt that English when asked what G wanted she quickly responded half a cider please!!!! But no only beer laos for her boooo!!!!

Now even though Vientiane is the capital there isn’t really much in the way of sights here. We pretty much passed most of them on the way to the Thai embassy. Including the Patuxai, Laos’ answer to the Arc de Triomphe, it was built in 1960 with US-purchased cement that was supposed to have been used to build a new airports ops!!!!

For those of you who are thinking about heading to Thailand overland be warned - they only give you 15 days on the border, so you need to get a visa, currently its free and you’re given 60 days BONZA!!!! So after many hours at the embassy we handed over our passports, dodged our stalker and headed back into town and one of its many cafes. We spent our only full day in Vientiane pottering around, enjoying the nice cheap red wine and finishing it with a stunning French meal (a pre celebration for G’s forthcoming Birthday).

We spent the next morning in the blistering heat sitting outside the Thai embassy (with no shade) waiting for it to open to pick up our visas before our quick dart up to Vang Vieng in time for G to tube for her Birthday.

Vientiane is a gorgeous, laid back capital, which doesn’t even feel like a capital. We wish we had more time to spend there but the tubes were calling!!!!

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Comments

[Kate]

Visa
Hi, do you know how long the visa is free for? Thanks Kate

[Tony and George]

visa
hi there, not sure, it should say on the thai immigration website, sorry.