Anou Hotel Vientiane

... a restaurant. We ordered food. Menu was all in Lao so we, dumbfounded, pointed at the pictures. All was well until an appetizer arrived towards the end of our dinner. We sent the waiter away telling him politely - "We didn't order". He took it back to the kitchen and soon returned insisting that we have it. OK we thought, well as long as they don't charge us for it, what harm could it be. After looking at the bill, baffled, we stumbled to the counter asking for an ...

... 0px; ">TAT Udon Thani, Tel. : 66 (0) 4232 5406-7
Nong Khai Provincial Administration Office, Tel. : 66 (0) 4242 0323
Nong Khai, Thailand amazingthailand

Vientiane - what a change from Vietnam - this place is so chilled out - there are no hawkers trying to sell stuff to you - or tuk tuk/ taxi / cyclo drivers trying to rip you off - yes this is a welcome change from Hanoi. This may be because it is less touristy here.
For a capital city it is small only 200000 people - but the size probably adds to the charm. It is on the ...

... and stopped and dried off a bit. Eventually the rain let up and we made it there.

My favorite part of Vientiane is the riverside in the evening. All of these little restaraunts set up along the water with great fresh seafood. It's really cute, if a bit touristy. I went out for one dinner to one of the lovely French restaraunts (Thanks Mom and dad!). It didn't turn out to be the spectacular meal I was fantasizing about, but I did get the first glass of decent wine I'd had in a while!

... soups. I did a cooking class for one day which was great and apart from that saw some waterfalls that were an hours drive out of town and also pottered around many of the temples (34 in a very small vacinity) and also visited the Royal Palace Museum. The night markets in Luang Prabang were excellent too. And just quickly, I nearly stepped on a Scorpion on the way home one night. I was in my thongs and this Scorpion was agro. I think it mustve just been in an ...

... and they were the biggest prawns I've ever eaten... lush and only 2quid! (luxury as normally I'm spending a quid per meal in Laos)... few more drinks at a live music bar then off to bed....

Laos is the most bombed country in the world.... because it's a Communist country and because it allowed Vietnamese troops to use their land, America secretly bombed it to bits for 10 years... they say on average the US dropped a bomb in Laos every 40 minutes for 10 years.
There are ...

... for Vietnam, but because it is now the weekend it is going to take 4 days to be processed. We are going to head to Vang Vien in the mean time and do sme chilling out there. We stayed in the worst accomodation when we frst got here. Most places seemed to be fully booked so when we found a place that had a room we jumped at the chance. It looked a bit dodgy but for only 45,000 kip a ...

... we had an orientation tour, and I'll include a couple of photos from Wat Sisaket, the only Buddhist temple to survive the last Thai sacking of Vientiane (which has been sacked more times than I can count). But the highlight was a visit to the Victory Monument, the Vientiane version of Paris's Arc de Triomphe built with cement donated by the U.S. to construct an airport. In the middle of the monument, a sign (must-see picture included ...