City Inn Vientiane Hotel

... about that). <br><br>There were thousands of people at the festival, we weren't sure where they came from since the rest of the city seemed empty. People came to pray and to make offerings, which were very festive looking. People attached real money to the flower alms and the monks amassed all the bills and put them away in giant plastic bags. These were meant as donations to the temple. Donations are made as credit for the afterlife so that ...

... can imagine!<br><br>That night we went to Friends restaurant which is a charity body that take street children and educate them, teach them English, hygiene (personal and food) and teach them how to work in a restaurant where they do their apprentiship before getting jobs in hotels and other places. The food and service was amazing.<br><br>After a couple of days in Phnom Penn (we found out you can&#8217;t get Laos visa&#8217;s on the border from Cambodia so got them sorted here ...

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... tourists off. It turns out that this didn't make much difference. Our tiny plane made a first stop at Savannakhet airport for us to get our visas. Why we couldn't just go straight to the capitol's airport I will never know. Perhaps the plane couldn't cope with flying for more than 40 minutes at a time. Sure enough, we all had to queue up to go and sit in a little room one at a time, where an official would staple our passport ...

We arrived in the capital of Laos in time for lunch. We then went to a place called Phat That Luang which is yet another temple but this time supposedly enclosing a piece of Buddha's breastbone from the 3rd century. It looked very impressive from a distance as the entire outside shined gold. on closer inspection, it was just paint and was a bit grimey. had ...

... represented the net, was a single strand of several nylon strings tied together to create one taught line that stretched from two fairly thick sticks buried well into the sand. So there was no net, but the concept of the net was there, and this was all made by these kids I assume. I don't imagine they are too picky on what their net looks like or whether or not you can play a ball off of the net, practicality was key here. The lines were created by the same nylon strings which I think ...

... to get too and I'm spending over my budget already so I need to chill a bit! Also there was a risk I might not meet many other travellers on the way down so I thought I'd just head straight there....<br><br>That's the only downside to being a female, solo traveller so far... I can't just hire a motorbike and head off into the country on my own like some of the men I've met have.... well I could, but it would be a bit stupid and my dad would worry too much!<br><br>Speak soon!<br><br><br>

... 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 ...

... them. So i decided to head out and check my emails. So here i am. <br><br>When i got back to the hostel later I decided to delay tubing for a day adn go on the public bus with some people i met at the hostel. <br><br> Next day, went to go investigate the public bus. Only save a quid by going on there and there's no aircon, so we're gonna do the 'VIP' bus. Got back to the hostel around 5 and they ...

... the first few days here, my head was spinning when I contemplated writing about our experiences. This was, after all, supposed to be a travel journal, I reasoned. But I felt wretched about being here: a sunburned foreigner surfing into their country on a tsunami of hard currency. Looking around, it seemed obvious what I represented: westernism, consumerism and the burgeoning tourism industry. I felt too strongly to give some facile travel account about us 'on holiday' in Laos. I ...