Homduang Boutique Hotel Vientiane

... We walked out shocked that in such a poor country someone would refuse our money and we just had our first "on the house" dinner.

October 4th
We got up to get bikes. It is always advised to use bicycles when in Laos in general, but here in Vientiane it made more sense...the distances would stretch out a bit more and oh, it's way more fun. We got our city bikes, (the ones without gears but with baskets!) and set off in search of our next adventure. We didn't have ...

... the other South East Asia cities and it is worth spending som chill out time here.
Laos is a relatively poor country and there is a midnight curfew here - where people are meant to be in there registered houses by midnight - although this does not seem to be enforced for tourists. The beer is beer Lao and the local drink Lao Lao the whiskey (my advice is try to avoid this)

... but seeing as the beds are designed for people of 5'5" it didnt help all that much. Eventually got to Vientiane and for the first time ever you could actually get off the bus without 101 tuk tuk drivers yelling and grabbing you. Just one little guy who casually commented 'you like tuk tuk?' and then put us on one to town. Very odd!! Tried a few hostels who told us they wouldnt have anything until 12 noon (its 6am by now!) so decamped to a French ...

... at the pool again instead! As it's Saturday there were loads of local kids having fun....
Vientaine is a lovely city... considering it's the capital, it's small, relaxed.... still has a bit of a French feel after being owned by the French so many years ago... so the croissants are to die for! The bamboo bars at the riverside made it for me.... although it looks like they are clearing a lot of them so I hope they don't just build a load of posh hotels on that prime land....
Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep heledd

... group of young men playing petanque, a common sight along side the river. We also watched locals trawling for fish in the river with framed circular nets, throwing back what looked like undersized fish. A coffee stop enabled me to practice one or two words on the locals - and how they enjoyed correcting me! It appears to be much more relaxed and laid back here than it is in Thailand, and that's saying something! Lots of smiley faces in this capital city which has a huge French and ...

... family .......and offered to show us around his city the city of Xainibulli. He lived just out of the city in a little village ....and we arrived there 5 hours after leaving LP.......before we even had a chance to settle in .....it was on with the new year celebrations (day 3)..............So off we went to a neighbours house..............again about 20 people all from the village had got together sitting on the floor.........drinking Beer Laos (the only beer in ...

... 7847;n 4 giờ chiều chúng tôi đến bến xe phía Nam Viêng Chăn, cách trung
tâm thành phố 9 km. Chúng tôi đi xe tuk tuk về khách sạn Xaysomboun.
Đây là khách sạn của một Việt Kiều, ở trung tâm Thủ đô. Sở dĩ chúng tôi
chọn khách sạn này vì ở đây tivi có các chương trình VTV, nhi ...

... later and we arrived to HEAT! Perfect, it was so nice to finally thaw out from Vietnam and was very welcome to say the least! Obtaining visa's was interesting, Zach in true ozzie laid back fashion had not really planned this part so didn't have enough money and what he did was in the wrong currency!, then an old rather upper class English group started complaining (in one of those 'non typical' posh ...