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Vientiane - Laos
A quick update - after 22 hours we finally reached Vientiane (apparently pronounced Wieng Chan). The journey was ok in the end although we got a little annoyed at the border as we had to pay an "extra" $2 fee for administration and because it was a weekend! Despite this we were rewarded with a stunning landscape as we drove the mountainous roads into Laos.
After the busy and cold Hanoi, Vientiane really was a breath of fresh air. No hassle by tuk-tuk drivers and pavements you could actually walk down. Brilliant! Also the temperature was about 20 degrees warmer and it was sunny. We found a hotel then went for food even though we felt pretty rubbish after the trip. Following a curry with our Dutch friends Laura and Desiree we went to bed for a much needed sleep. The next morning we got ourselves out to the Buddha Park on the outskirts of the capital. At this point it's worth mentioning the Vientiane has to be the most laid back capital city in the world! We caught a local bus and enjoyed chatting to an elderly man who was a teacher in the local village. The Buddha Park was pretty cool, filled with impressive concrete statues of various religious icons. The afternoon saw us book a bus for the next day and have food with our Dutch mates and Erin an American who was also on the bus.
In the morning we got a tourist bus 4 hours north to Vang Vieng. Once we had found accommodation we arranged a kayaking trip on the river. Vang Vieng is famed for "tubing" which involves floating down the river on a large inflatable tube stopping off at bars en route. We passed many of the bars on the trip and were amazed/shocked by the hundreds of revellers drinking themselves silly to loud pumping music. Our guide Sippon was excellent and gave us an insight into what the locals thought of all the bars and drinking! We caught a beautiful sunset as we neared the end of our trip before heading for food and bed. At 9.00 the next morning we boarded a minivan with 11 others and set off on a 9 hour drive north to Luang Prabang!
Laura and Stani xx
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