Day 29 - The day after the night before!

Up for breakfast at about 08:00 both feeling a little jaded. Alice had a bit more colour in her which was a good sign. A great breakfast with fruit, omelette, croissants and hot chocolate of all things!

After breakfast we went along the river to an art gallery we had seen the day before where we quite liked a canvas in there. I had already asked the price them so I knew what they wanted for it, $30 so I took all the money we had in the wallet out and left only $24 worth of Lao kip in there. We got to to gallery and as Alice sat outside I proceeded to haggle, if you can call it that. I just opened my wallet and said, "we are leaving today, that is all I have, will you take $24?". This was met with the usual sigh but I just said it's take it or leave it. A bit of a silence stand off and she agreed so took it out of the frame and rolled it up for us.

On return to the hotel, we packed and went to check out as our flight to vientiane was at 12:50. I was just explaining to the receptionist that as we had paid in advance for the room we would not be paying for the Sprite from minibar because of all the loud music last night, when the manager arrived. "Just the man I want to see!!". The conversation centred around the noise and I was joined by a brazilian guy who had his 2 pennies worth. The manager said he has written to UNESCO about it as the restaurant was built on the river bank where no building is permitted. I then decided to be a bit cheeky and asked whether as a (another, the manager didn't know about the minibar at this stage) good will gesture that they would pay for the transfer to the airport to which he said ofcourse. Saved us $9!! only problem was we had been to the ATM earlier to get cash out to cover us for the day and now were rolling in Kip!!

A minivan arrived 15 minutes late to take us to the airport. As got out and walked past the departure board, we couldn't see our flight. Got the paper out and it was there but put back by 20 minutes. This was annoying as we had a train to catch in Vientiane. We checked in and then sat outside for a bit as we had a bit of time. As the flight time got closer we moved inside and sat in departures. It holds about 50 people max and there was about 70 of us. This seemed a bit strange as the airport usually only accepts propellor planes with a capacity of about 50 or 60. We then noticed an airbus jet outside and assumed we must be on that. The take off time came and went. We were then called and indeed, we were on the one and only Laos Airlines jet. Boarded and in our seats, the announcement said the flight time would be 24 minutes. It would usually be about 1hr 15 minutes so if anything we were ahead of schedule for our train. The flight attendants only had time to get up, give us a bag of strange crisps and water before having to sit again for landing!.

We arrived, picked up our bags and got a taxi to Thanaleng station which basically takes us over the border into Thailand from Laos. When we arrived at the train station, 2hrs early, it was like a ghost town as it's in the middle of nowhere and only does one route, Thanaleng to Nong Khai. It is a 7 minute journey and is the only section of railway in Laos. Very bizarre station as it is set up as if it was a big station serving many routes around the country. Ordered a 2nd class ticket but ended up with a 3rd class ticket. Didn't really matter as it's only 7 minutes. Had a bit of a snack and one last beer lao at the station. More and more people were turning up, no locals, all westerners. I asked the lady selling the tickets whether she would change all the Lao kip I had for Thai baht which she did. This was a massive bonus as I don't think you can change kip to baht in Thailand so would have had about £40 in my wallet. Supposed I could have sold it to Dutchie at a hugely inflated rate! Got our Lao visas stamped out and got on the train and pretty much straight off again into Thailand. Got our visa on arrival and headed for our sleeper train to Bangkok. Bit confusing at first whether the train at the station was ours but we went and asked the guard who pointed us on. We've booked a 2nd class air con sleeper which has seats both sides like in the UK which then fold into bunk beds. Settled in and chained our bags to the metal steps to the top bunk and sat down for the ride. 5 minutes in, the dinner menu came around. We both ordered sweet and sour chicken, chicken and vegetables with rice. She then pretty much insisted I try a Chang beer so who was I to refuse, should help me sleep! The food arrived and to be honest it was not half bad for train food. After a while people were having their beds made up by one of the guards but as it was only about 19:30 we kept ours as seats. Pretty much everyone had got their beds done so we thought we better get ours made up. The top bed folds down and the guard lays out the mattress, puts clean sheets on and hangs the curtains. Might be an interesting night as I'm sure these beds are not made for someone of 6' 2"!!