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Laos – Vientiane
Tuesday 10th November – Thursday 12th November
We took the 10am bus from Vang Vien, the journey to Vientiane took 3 and half hours. As usual we were dropped off at a so called bus station on the edge of the town. Shared a Tuk Tuk with other travelers, there must have been about 12 of us cramped into this mini Tuk Tuk. 10 mins later we were dropped off in the city centre, the mission to look for places to stay commenced!! Vientiane is the capital of Laos, however it wasn’t very big and lacked in cheap guesthouses. We strolled around for over an hour, a lot of places were already full or were way out of our budget. Finally we found a place for $6 a night, it was one of worst places yet but cheap cheap, so couldn’t say no. It was very dark and dingy, on the bottom floor out the back of the reception area!!! Didn’t take us long to dump our bags and head out to the light hehe!
Using the guide book we strolled around the city, finding some of the sights to visit tomorrow. You may laugh but the local swimming pool and bowling alley is actually in the top 5 things to do while in the city, it was about 4pm at this point so we planned on doing them the next day. Stopped off at a local café, enjoyed a few beer Lao’s before heading back to get cleaned up for dinner. There weren’t many places to choose from for dinner, so we picked one of the suggested places in the guide book. It was a local place and nothing special to look at. However, the food was amazing. We were given a plate of different types of lettuce and herb leaves, 2 different chili sauces, bean sprouts, some cold rice noodles and a plate of pork meatballs. At first we had no idea what to do, but watching some of the locals in action we soon learned how to use the ingrediants to make a wrap. They were delicious, once you got the hang of what to do! After dinner we had a stroll towards the riverside and stopped for a drink at one of the street bars on the riverside. We got talking to one of the local guys, who liked to practice his English. He told us all about the history and people of Laos, there was a little catch! At the end of the conversation he offered to take us on a tour while we were in the city, we blagged our way out of this and told him we would be back tomorrow night for dinner so would talk to him about it then – we never went back!!!!
Today we started off at JoMa Café for breakfast, time to update some of the journal and abuse the free Wi-Fi! Few hours later we headed towards the swimming pool. The local public swimming pool of the city wasn’t very big, but was clean and cheap. It also had sun lounges so we could enjoy the sun and have a swim. I enjoyed doing some long earned lengths!!! After a few hours we were pretty sizzled, the strength of the sun was incredible. We soon packed up and headed for the bowling alley. The bowling alley was a good sized place with about 10 lanes, we were the only ones there though. They even had to turn the lights on for us, and one of the staff members was also having a little nap on the side when we first turned up!!! It was so cheap to play though, 2 games for one pound and the shoes were wicked!! Kimmy would like to brag and tell you all how I beat Ryan at both games of bowling, we have photo evidence too. Winning was thirsty work so we chilled out in a local bar with a few beer Lao’s. For dinner we headed to another restaurant recommended in the guide book. The ‘Taj Mahal’ what a lovely Lao style Indian meal we had, it was like being back at the Raj in Faversham. We had a feast and the bill was still super cheap, and they had the nicest vegetable samosas ever. We were truly satisfied and full to the brim.
Still full up from the night before we couldn’t manage any breakfast. Instead Ryan enjoyed a chocolate milkshake and I had a coffee. We then hired some bicycles for the day, some of the sights were on the outskirts of the city so this was the best way to explore. It was a scorcher of a day…35 degrees and not one cloud in the sky. So you can safely say that we spent the day hot and sweaty while cycling around the city. We firstly headed out of the city to find the Australia’s embassy social club, in the guide book it said this was a good place for travelers to visit as it had a pool area and cheap drinks. We cycled and cycled but found nothing, we soon found out that it had closed down!!! So we made the 20 minute cycle ride back towards town, we then stopped off at the city’s observation tower, where we enjoyed the great view of the whole city. The last site to see was the ‘Golden Temple’ another long cycle ride. It was a beautiful temple, made to look like solid gold. We then headed back into the centre, where we handed the bikes back and we enjoyed many beers to cool down!! The evening was spent updating both journals while sipping coffee at JoMa café for the last time!!!
Off to Cambodia tomorrow…….
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