Vientiane

Saturday 15th

We were picked up at 7:30am for our 10:00am flight to Vientiane (Laos), as it is an international flight we did the norm and got there two hours early. We took note of the 100ml of liquids not being on board but we neglected our brand new 160g toothpaste, customs pulled us up and we had to throw it away.

The plane was very small and took us first to Pakse in Southern Laos where no one got off but some people did get on. We had to get off the plane to go inside and get our visas. I was confused reading the guide as it stated that Lao visas are between $30 and $42. We found out that different nationalities had to pay different prices. Australia was $30, China was $20 and Canada was $42, don't know what they did wrong. The majority of the plane had to get visas so it took about 30 minutes. It's very easy and cheaper to get visas on arrival we have found so i would recommend doing this to everyone.

We arrived in Vientiane around 1pm and straight off the plane we were hit with a cool breeze, which was a pleasant change from the heat of Cambodia. Whereas Phnom Penh will be 33 degrees max and Vientiane 29 degrees max, the difference is in the minimums - Phnom Penh will be 23 degrees and Vientiane 13 degrees. Much better sleeping weather.

We got in a taxi and went into the centre of town. We tried a few places but the only rooms they had available were with shared bathrooms and certainly overpriced for that. We let the driver take us to one and that was the winner. 100 000 kip per night ($12.50) with air con (which we didn't need) and our own bathroom. It was much easier going in Vietnam and Cambodia when it came to figuring out how much things truly cost. For Vietnam you divided by 20 (20 000), Cambodia mostly used the US dollar, which is basically the same as ours at the moment, but in Laos you have to divide by 8 (8 000), which is as friendly a number for quick calculations.

Maria and Bronwyn were in Vientiane for our first three days so we met up with them for dinner. We decided to go to Nazim Indian restaurant, to pay homage to our friend. Not as good as Indian should be but it was decent. I also had my first Beer Lao, which comes in a long neck bottle (unless you want a can).


Sunday 16th

We met up with Maria and Bronwyn to go to the national symbol of Laos - Pha That Luang. It's a big golden Wat a few kms from the centre of town. As far as national symbols go, it wasn't that grand. We paid to get in and literally could only walk around it. We went to the Wat next door and had a look around. The National Assembly is just up the road so we went and got a photo of that. We went back to town together and had a break before meeting up for dinner.

We went to the Lebanese place next door to the girl's hotel for dinner, it was very disappointing for all of us.


Monday 17th

Kay and I went to the Scandinavian Bakery for lunch/brunch. I had tzatiki with bread, which was very nice. We went to an internet cafe as i had to write my Siem Reap post (which took two days and three hours to do). After that we went to That Luang market (which was really a shopping centre) where i bought a new luggage bag - in Siem Reap i locked the keys inside my bag so we tried to get the padlock off but broke one of the zips in the process. I was still able to lock my bad but it was on a different zip and not completely safe.

We went round to the girl's hotel before dinner but Maria wasn't feeling well so we Kay and I went out for dinner ourselves. Whilst near the river we had a look at the stalls step up and one of the stores on the main road. This was a legitimate store selling all illegitimate items. Nothing tickled our fancy, well nothing that we could take home. They had nun chucks, retractable batons and switchblades for sale.


Tuesday 18th 

We had lunch at this place which was always packed and they offered a lunch buffet, which gave us a good chance to try many Lao dishes. I had a kebab stick which had what looked like a small capsicum on it, it turned out to be the hottest chilli i've ever had. My mouth was on fire for 20 minutes and i had to have water constantly in my mouth as it feel slightly better.

We went to the internet cafe, where for another two hours i got my blog done and we uploaded our photos to facebook. After finishing there we went to the Wat Si Saket, Vientiane's oldest Wat. It wasn't that good to be honest.


Wednesday 19th

We had seen a Chinese restaurant with a Peking Duck set for 98 000kip ($12) so we decided to go there for lunch. The whole trip i had wanted to have Peking Duck since it's cheaper than home and i like duck. It involved some duck with the wrappers, stir fried duck (though mostly bones) and a duck soup. It was very nice but certainly not worth the amount it costs in Australia.

We walked along the river front and took photos of some monuments and the presidential palace. Alot of the streets in Vientiane are one way - but not all. As such, i didn't look both ways crossing the road and i was almost hit by a tuk tuk, literally centremetres away from hitting me. So i was very lucky. No more being complacent, that's for sure.


One of the unfortunate things about t.v in Laos is that unlike Cambodia and Vietnam, they dub English channels instead of subtitles. This effectively meant we only have four channels to watch, two of which are BBC world news and CNN.