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Vientiene
We arrived in the capital to find that our reservation for a hotel had not been confirmed and they did not have any rooms available! So we found somewhere around the corner that was cheapish and seemed ok. Well let's just say that it was better by day than it was by night! It was just one of places that didn't make you feel safe and was kind of creepy - Jo also noticed a glow-in-the-dark heart on the wall when we turned the lights out which, apparently, is the sign of a prostitute - nice. We soon reached for our own sleeping bags and kept the TV on most of the night for comfort. But, we were savvy enough to have made a reservation at our original place for the next night. This hotel was lovely - probably the nicest (also read 'expensive') place we have stayed in so far and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We actually had to stay here for a few days as our next stop was Vietnam and our visas didn't start for a while (shame) and we were glad that it was such a lovely hotel in a really nice city.
We spent the next day chilling out and treated ourselves to a massage (very cheap) in between wandering around! The day after was a little busier as we checked our flight prices to Hanoi and booked direct with Lao Airlines (worst safety record in history of airlines apparently), whilst also fitting in sitting by the river and watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Saturday we were very active and rented bikes to explore the city a bit further a field; not bad for 60p each for 24hrs. We went to see the Lao version of L'Arc de Triomphe (Patuxai) which bizarly describes itself (on a plague on the wall) as an "unfinshed ugly concrete structure" (!) before stumbling upon some local rugby - which we sat and watched for a couple of hours - there was men's, women's and kids' and due to the heavy rains it was a fun and soggy pitch! What else do you do on a Saturday afternoon?! We then spent quite some time trying to find a statue and seemingly cycling in circles - to no avail; then we got home and realised that we MUST have cycled past it twice without realising - I guess it wasn't much good! After all of that exercise and stress we felt it necessary to seek out a spa the next day; a steam room and Lao massage later we couldn't work out if we were in more pain than before or less!? Reading books by the river was called for before changing for dinner and checking up on the Olympic results - it's a hard life!
Vientiane is a lovely city and possibly the smallest capital city I have ever visited and we liked it!
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