Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We woke up at 6.30am and walked to the bus stop by the old airfield, this airstrip is famous for being in a Mel Gibson movie called 'Air America'. We saw a bus coming our way and hailed it down, the driver told us it cost 50,000 LAK, we refused to pay this amount as we had been told that it should cost 40,000 LAK. A songtheaw (pick-up truck/bigger version of a tuk tuk) saw us and pulled over after the bus had gone. The songtheaw driver offered to take us to Vientiane for 40,000 LAK each. We were happy with this price and agreed to jump in, all the passengers were locals apart from us As the journey went on, the songtheaw did a few stops to pick up and drop off locals. A girl who sat next to Jay was struggling with the journey and had to lean out the back of the vehicle to throw up. We gave her some of our water and she took it with appreciation. She continued to throw up as the bumpy journey went on (bless her). Most of the locals were trying to fall asleep to avoid being travel sick themselves. There were two cute babies with their mothers who sat either side of Jay. One was constantly hungry and was being breastfed and the other baby was smiley after a long nap. (Jay got a bit broody haha) Towards the end of our 3.5 hours journey, the high levels of dust coming off the road, the constant bumpy and windy roads made us very travel sick. We were relieved when we arrived at Vientiane at 10.30am. A tuk tuk driver spotted us and offered to take us to the backpackers' district, which was 10km away. He charged us 20,000 LAK each. When he dropped us off, Helen looked after the bags whilst Jay looked for
accommodation for us. We decided to stay at the 'Mixay Guesthouse' for 85,000
LAK (£6.52) each per night. We stayed in a basic clean room with a shared
bathroom. We were so exhausted from the journey, we managed to nap for a good
four hours! We were very hungry when we woke up. We went to a restaurant
nearby, Jay had beef noodle soup and enjoyed it. Helen had lost her appetite and
wanted something light to eat, she ordered chicken rice soup but did not get this.
There was obviously a language barrier, they brought out chicken noodle soup then
rice with broth. Helen just accepted the rice with broth and it turned out to be too
salty and hardly ate anything. After we ate, we went to an ATM to get some cash
out and walked to a minimart. We both wanted something sugary for energy, Jay
bought a can of coke and Helen bought some Haribo sweets. We walked to the
'Patuxai Monument' which took 10-15 minutes to get to. This is a victory monument
to mark Laos independence. It is shaped similar to the French 'Arc de Triomphe'.
We saw a beautiful sunset when we got there. We also strolled around the Patuxai
Park, it was a clean and beautiful area.
For dinner, we ate at a restaurant nearby to our hostel called 'Thonglor'. Jay had
fried vermicelli with chicken and Helen had wide rice noodle soup with chicken.
Dinner was tasty but Helen could not each much. Whilst eating, a woman beggar
came from behind Helen and started begging which made us feel uncomfortable as she was very persistent. We did not give anything and she eventually went away.
After dinner we went out for drinks at the 'Tex Mex Alexia' bar, this was a lively
bar. We started off sitting outside and this random local guy started to talk to us
and came over to try and join us, as he was walking over, Helen saw large chains
wrapped around one of his ankles. This led us to believe that there was something
'wrong' with him. We felt a bit uneasy with his presence and moved inside the bar.
Whilst sitting inside, a beggar crawled in on his hands and knees and looked
around the bar and left. We thought to ourselves what an interesting start to
Vientiane!
- comments