Douangdeuane Hotel Vientiane

... just laughing and clearly knew that it was a scam. After about half hour of stalemate between us westerners and soldiers one of the staff from the bus came up and said to pay or else the bus would go without us in 10 mins. So we had no real choice but to pay up.

When we got back on the bus one of the couples on board noticed their bag was missing, but they were told it got moved into the main hold when all the bags got x-rayed through customs. We were finally on Vietnam ...

... 1500;פני שבועי 97;ם.
כמע
496; שלא צילמת 97; בלאוס, בהתחל 92; כי לא הרגשת 97; צורך וכשרצ 97;תי לצלם כבר לא י ...

... do not die from shock at my worrying exploits, I'm fine!) So, tubed along quite happily, meeting other random tourists along the way and just generally thinking Laos was the best place ever. Then I was a little sick, shamefully probably because of the alchohol. Then realised it was getting dark so with renewed energy and general coordination we hopped back onto the river and floated down to the end point. Bizarrely small children waded out to us and helped ...

The bus ride was hell. 13 hours of dosing on and off. I did get some sleep, I'd say I got about 5 hours worth. The bus stopped at Udon Thani, then I had to catch another bus to the border, luckily there was no wait, I was able to hop off of one bus straight onto another. I walked through the Thai border and caught another bus across the Friendship Bridge to Laos. It took a while to get everything sorted out, but 30 minutes and 35 dollars later I had a visa for 30 days in Laos. I ...

... the next. Of course, if there are no roads to get to Muang Ngoi, there are definitely no ATM’s. Surprisingly, we managed to stay for four nights and lived quite comfortably for around $9 per day for the two of us!

Next we decided to ‘fast-track’ it back down to Vientiane. We stayed for one more night in Luang Prabang, and then took a very long bus ride back to the capital. Roh and Rob had highly recommended that we stay at an Eco ...

... loudly and sharing his business with everyone. Apparently his cheque had bounced, but one party said it hadn't and he couldn't do anything till he got back to his apartment in Hong Kong. What a dick.



We then headed to the national symbol of Laos (on its flag) - Pha That Luang. This is a 45m high, 24-carat gold stupa, which is pretty impressive. Unfortunately we arrived about 3pm and it was shutting within half an hour. There was not much to see or read ...

... Lao version of the Champs Elysees (which is actually a copy of the Unter Den Linden Strasse in Berlin) and Potouxai is the Loa Arc de Triomphe . It is roughly modeled after the French one, though instead of there is a lot of Buddhist symbolism. The Arc was never finished because of Loas' turbulent history, though you are able to get a good sense of it. Everything in the town closes at 4pm so after visiting the Arc, we just walked around ...

... of the valley and the karsts surrounding Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng - Phong Hong (90 kms) Undulating to flat. Mostly up and down, no horrendous climbs. There are a couple of guest houses in Phong Hong (40,000), plus if you want to carry on a bit along the road to Vientiane, there are guest houses 50 and 45 kms from Ventiane also. Phong Hong - Vientiane (72 kms) Pretty flat most of the way.

... and ate, we watched a huge group of kids having so much fun splashing everyone and themselves with water. After sitting there for a couple of hours we decided we would brave the outdoors. Of course we were soaked not long after leaving, so at that point we decided to walk around since we were wet anyway. We came across some of the happiest people ever ...

... a địa phương thường rẻ hơn so với món từ nơi khác mang đến. Hôm từ Luangprabang trở về Viêng Chăn, trời đã tối, từ khách sạn lang thang một vòng mấy trăm mét không thấy có món ăn của Lào, chúng tôi đành vào quán người gốc Việt bán. Chúng tôi chỉ chọn món ...