Angkham Hotel Vientiane

October 3rd
So we took off on our Laos Airlines flight and we were in Vientiane in 40 minutes. We were both quite hungry, after being guesthouse-bound the whole day. Straight after booking into our lovely hotel we set off to find food.
Before we go any further i must mention: we were staying amongst a rural/working class populous. This part of Vientiane had no tourists. We walked down a few dark paths, carried on through until the main road and hey presto we got ...

... and from Udon Thani, mini buses offer a 40 minute transfer to Nong Khai. An alternative is to take the rail service that runs every evening from Bangkok to Nong Khai.

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Nong Khai, Thailand amazingthailand

... eventually accepted some Thai baht which i still had in my pocket. Food was basic but ok - Chicken fried Rice - (the diet of rice and noodles continues!).
It was just me Jorge and Pirjo - me and Jorge were starving and just wolfed the food down which was of great amusement to Prijo you must have really wondered about our eating habits - but hey when you are hungry who just want to eat.

... to any other market where we've been shouted at "You buy from Me !!". In Cambodia the only cars we saw were Toyota Camrys - there were thousands of them, here we've seen all sorts, Lamborghini's to beetles.

The enduring symbols of Laos for us will be yummy sticky rice, served in bamboo dishes and Beerlao. Everywhere sells beerlao, we drove passed the Beerlao brewery and saw walls of crates ready for dispatch. Perhaps that's why everyone's asleep ?!

... untrainted artists. The largest sculpture is a large pumpkin shaped concrete monument that you can go inside. It has 3 levels to represent hell, earth, and heaven. It was pretty cool (if a little dark and difficult to walk around inside!) Of course, the day didn't go as smoothly as planned, as we got caught in a ridiculous rainstorm and were completely soaked when we finally had to stop cause our drivers couldn't even see the road anymore. But, we found a lovely place for noodle ...

... that's all I have to say about that.


Two days later it was an 8 hour bus journey to the heart and soul of Laos, Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is the former royal capital of Laos, its a beautful town that is Unesco Heritage Listed which means no buses, trucks, construction etc. Its set on the banks of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers. The streets are clean and quiet, the houses are quaint and traditional and the food was fantastic, especially the ...

... made his dream come true! It's probably the most surreal place I've been so far... just weird....
I managed to flag a bus back ok.....
That evening I met Ozzie Matt in the hostel.... we went for drinks down at the river and I probably saw the most amazing sunset ever! We decided to grab some food down there... we ate at a bar that had live frogs, eels, fish and prawns ready to be killed and eaten... and a large dead turtle that we could have eaten.... we both opted for prawns ...

... activities to consider...Kayaking, treks, climbing....none of which tickled our fancy lol. We ventured back into the town in the evening but didn't stay long....

In the morning we made our way to the bus terminal and grabbed a bus to Vientiane. The journey was about three and a half hours....pretty scenery winding through villages and along mountain roads ...

We are now in Vientiane and it seems like a pretty cool capital city, very laid back. I went to the doctors today and it seems my burn is infected, I had to get the burnt skin cleaned off, but it should be able to heal up now. The worst part is I can't get it wet! So no swimming, no tubing in Vang Vieng, nothing! What bad timing. We have been busy while here and have organised our ...

... where 2 Laos with guitars played a selection of classic rock and contemporary pop songs. They were hands-down the best cover band I have ever heard. Because they don't speak English, they study each song and sound EXACTLY like the original singer. I heard Kelly Clarkson and Shakira from the same Lao woman. We drank BeerLao, which comes only in 640 mL bottles (for comparison, a bottle of wine is 750 mL. This is a BIG bottle.). This ...