Royal Dokmaidaeng Vientiane

... choice to take a bus from Vang Vieng in the north all the way to the south of Laos. I am happy to be getting on with our travels, but I'm also a bit saddened to think we may be looking at the heart of Laos through a bus window. It was difficult to leave the stunning, awe inspiring scenery of Vang Vieng behind, but after a nice dinner in Vientiane, I'm ready to roll along to 4 Thousand Islands (Si Phon Don) and to see ...

... visiter certaines parties du sud, du centre et du nord, malgre un court sejour.<br><br>Cependant, les routes du Laos deviennent vite cahoteuses et certaines sont drolement en mauvais etat lorsqu'on sort de la capitale. J'avais jamais vu autant de nids de poules. C'est meme parfois plus agreable de rouler dans l'accotement. Julie, BAUVAL ferait de bonnes affaires ici (et pourrait commanditer notre equipe de patin encore tres longtemps ...

... know what it was or how long it would take to heal or whether i needed to pack it etc.<br><br>I knew i was coming to see Anna though so i wasnt too bothered. My ankle then started to de-balloon! <br><br>The bus from Vientiane to Bangkok was cool!! It was a psychadelic bus!!! Lasers underneath the bus and neon everywhere!! It was pretty comfortable actually. We arrived back in Khao San at 5 am......<br><br>Love C++<br>

... were happy we headed up to the border crossing, this was where yet more fun and games began. We went to the "Check Out" window to hand over our passports to get our departure from Laos stamps, but the woman wouldn't give us them back until we'd paid her a 10,000 kip "Departure Tax". We were told that everyone had to do this, so we just handed the money over (it's approx. 75p) and headed up to the Vietnam side of the crossing. When we got there we had to fill out a medical form ...

... avance mon gros et bak up !).<br> Cette fois ci, pas de panier. pas de selle. juste moi et la bete. Quel elephant me donne t-on... ? Mae Cot ! Ca y est, j&lt;ai la trouille ! Mais elle leve gentiment la patte pour me permettre de monter dessus...pour ensuite m&lt;elever avec bien peu de grace et en me prenant par une de ses oreilles, sur son dos. Dans son cou, en fait. Son dos est trop large. <br><br>Pour diriger, facile. On donne des mini cou avec le dos du pied, derrire ...

... stuff is soaked. And of course, we got in at 5:30 am. Why don't the buses leave at 9 or 10 pm instead of 8 pm so we could get in at a more reasonable time? Had to walk around in the pouring rain for over an hour, looking for a guest house, as some weren't open yet and those that were didn't know if they had rooms available yet. Didn't even matter that it was raining since I was soaked from the minute I put my pack on! <br><br>My main goal in Vientiane was to get a 60 day visa for ...

... were there for. The Nam Song river has quite a strong current, and people hire their tubes from town and get driven to a drop-off point a few k's out of town. Dotted along the river are atleast 10 bars, all cranking music, with ropes and slides for people to risk their lives on jumping into the river. (of which you cannot see the bottom or any rocks etc). Now these shack bars offer free shots ALL DAY. Free shots of Lao Lao, the local poison and also ...

... br><br>And that concludes our long overdue Laos blog. What an amazing country! I would recommend anyone go there. It&#8217;s a place that you always imagined in your mind that Asia would be before tourism and development hit, like Thailand, 50 years ago (maybe?). Erin and I both agreed that we were so glad that we went to Vietnam first before going to Laos as I don&#8217;t think that we would have appreciated Vietnam as much as we did at the time if we&#8217;d seen Laos first.

... but I'm looking forward to traveling solo again. Makes deciding where to eat a lot easier. Typical of my luck I get the worst bus of all the sleeper buses going to Pakse. Bus has bunk beds on either side and it's a pretty snug fit for two western guys. Luckily the bus wasn't full so I hopped over to the top bunk across the aisle. Much comfier. Stopped in the middle of nowhere at one point to pick up some people. Resigned myself to having to ...

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