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Our journey from Vang Veing to Vientiane was again an eventful one.It seemed that whoever had the contract to build the road thought perhaps it would be a good idea to only tarmac parts of it. So you would be sitting on a big bus with a smooth part of the road and after that it would be bumpy and then smooth. It was only when we was reaching the city of Vientiane that the road started to improve. We eventually arrived in one piece in Vientiane and the bus dropped us off outside a line of tuk tuks, I knew our hotel was situated in the city so when we asked how much to our hotel the drivers were giving us high prices so we saw a map printed on a board and decided that our hotel was not far so we would walk. Well one of the things I said I never wanted to do and that was to walk around with heavy ruck sacks on our back, but I put on a smiley face and off we walked, until we realised we had gone round in circles and saw the same tuk tuk driver who now offered to take us for less to our hotel , but Lee with his principles said no, I know where the hotel is I was just looking at the map the wrong way, the hotel was in another direction, so this time I gritted my teeth and off we went. Bearing in mind the temp must have been about 30 and still no sign of our hotel so i said that was it I'm not walking anymore in this heat with a ruck sack for the sake of a few quid, so Lee walked over to a tuk tuk driver up and asked him much to our hotel and it turned out our hotel was just over the road. So off we went and booked into our lovely hotel.
There was just something about our room, hotel and the location that we knew we wanted to stay here for a few days so we went to reception to enquire about booking in for a few more days, typical that our room was booked out already so we asked to look at other rooms and were not pleased as the windows were facing a brick wall of a new hotel being built next door. Although the room was cheaper we still didn't like it as the room we had booked in was big a bright and overlooked the garden. We said we would think about it and by the time I had got back our room they had phoned from Reception and offered us the room we was staying in for 5 nights and cheaper than the rate we had booked on Booking.com. So we was happy and decided to unpack for the first time in ages and set off to have a look around and for something to eat. Our hotel was in a really good location and about a 10 minutes to the Mekong River water front. This place was amazing it seemed as though it came alive in the evenings with the locals making the most of this lovely park and river front. There were families with children playing in the park, small market stalls selling everything from clothes to food, people walking on the bridge, young people just walking and chatting, but the best sight of all was the aerobics that was taking place in two parts of the park. All ages were working vigoursly to the sound of music and following the instructions of the aerobics leader, it certainly made you want to join in (although we didn't). Although this was a city you really felt like you was in a small town community where all the locals came together in the evening in one place to either exercise or just relax, something I don't think you will ever see in England which is a shame.
After watching all the exercising we got a bit of an appetite just off the river front are small quaint streets with French colonial type buildings where we found a small but busy resturant where I enjoyed my first decent glass of Sauvignon BlancIt, was nicely
chilled and went down a treat with my spaghetti carbonara.
After a very cosy nights sleep and good breakfast we got a map from reception and planned our trips for the day. Some of the sights we thought were a distance away but when we left the hotel some of them were in walking distance. The Presidential Palace was near our hotel and was very impressive it has just recently been built and retained the French colonial look, there was a lot of new impressive buildings in this area which gave you the impression that Vietiene was very much a thriving city, but when you walked beyond that into the side streets a lot of shops and hotels were closed down. Patuxai Gate looked interesting as it was suppost to resemble the Arc De Triumph it was a pleasant walk but when we reached it it looked like a big grey dingy concert block which looked unfinished. The grounds were in a bit better condition and locals and tourists were enjoying the grounds and taking a photos. We decided to have a look inside we had to pay about £1 each and was shocked that it was filled in side with different levels of cheap tacky souvenir shops. We walked to the top and enjoyed the views over Vietiene and took some photos. It was extremely hot on our walk back to our hotel so we decided to just cool down and chill in room and catch up on making plans for our next move.
After spending 5 days relaxing in Vietiane enjoying the sites, good food and cold tiger beers we decided it was time to move on so we decided to book cheap to flights Pakse.
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