Rivertime Resort and Ecolodge Vientiane

... seats were decent, but what definitely wasn't, in contrast, was the flat-screen at the front playing offensively ***** Lao pop music at quite a loud volume. This kept up for the majority of the four hour journey. Nothing much happened on the road, well, aside from the driver having an obsession with stamping on the brake peddle. Every twenty minutes or so we would all lurch forward, sometimes violently, and only once did observation prove this was ever necessary, when a little ...

... Vientiane this morning seeking a geocache (see geocaching.com) . 1 of 5 in the whole country. We were disappointed by the city walk. Vientiane is just a big city in construction with lots of traffic (compared to the rest of the country) and anyway not as pretty as Luang Prabang.

... life, but the group dynamic was very flat, and the girls (who all refused to swim in the water-fall rock pools!?) were such a bunch of misery guts that we all felt kind of miserable... It didn't change the fact that the whole thing was beautiful, and that we had spent some more time outdoors, working on our suntans.<br><br>After a good week, we looked north, and decided that it might be fun to head to Vang Vieng, to hit the tourist spot for some light-hearted relief.

... describe it the same way it is described at the Arc itself - it's a Concrete Monster! Only similarity being that it's an Arc! <br><br>On the evening we wanted to head to watch the sunset from the rooftop bar but the weather wasn't the best (very cloudy) so we decided to go for a meal instead and then some beers. This time we managed to find a busier Bowling Alley, with a Night Club attached to it, so we stayed there for the remainder of the evening partying with the locals (we ...

... following evening. That night was nothing out of the ordinary, eating and drinking in a local restaurant and talking about our plans for the rest of Laos.<br>One funny incident I have to report came when where were in a local fishing tackle shop. Our friend Scott was shopping for a new rod and reel and it was glaringly obvious, from the moment the five of us walked in to the shop, that the owner wasn't exactly happy with our ...

... on&#8221;. Apparently I can be the intimidating kind as he quickly backed down, apologised, and tried to become my new best friend.<br><br>After whiling away a few hours in Pakse, we were herded onto a tuk tuk in the pouring rain and taken to the bus station to take the overnight trip up to Vientiane. No matter if they call themselves a V.I.P. service, I am convinced these buses are only comfortable if you have the ...

... some people stay there weeks, months even... most of the bar staff were Brits who'd ended up staying longer than planned ... 2 days was enough for me :)<br><br>So the next day I headed to the capital of Laos, Vientiane... this time I went for the tourist minibus option - no air-con - boiling!! I sat next to 2 Aussies (they'd been fined $1000 each for smoking spliffs!!) and an Iranian.... did you know the Iranian passport is the second most useless passport in the world (after the ...

... a Canadian man, Devon, who we'd met on the journey. The steak was absolutely amazing, and we all treated ourselves to a glass of wine which was lovely too. Wine is very expensive in Laos (20 quid for a bottle of Jacobs Creek!!) so it was really nice to be enjoying a glass. We then headed out to a bar for some more drinks, courtesy of Devon who was only on holiday and insisted on buying us travelling ladies three carafs of wine! We felt a bit ...

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