Vientiene

It was an uncomfortable 4 hours bus to Vientiene We were duped into buying ‘VIP’ bus tickets, which turned out to be a local bus but especially for foreigners. We snaked our way to Vientiene through an afternoon shower, something we haven’t seen in a few months. Laos’s capital city definitely doesn’t feel like your typical capital, it’s definitely more relaxed than CBD centred. Despite this being the low season- as its scorchingly hot- we had some trouble in finding a room. I left a sweaty Mal and the bags outside a café while I took my turn at scouting, eventually finding a huge room in an old mansion for $10- despite the fact that the bathroom was down the hall, this was a bargain for the city prices.

Having read about a special restaurant whose names translates as ‘Chilli’, we decided to dine for a cause that night. This special restaurant takes Laos homeless children from the streets and trains them as chefs, waiters, managers etc and all profits feed back into the organization. The venue was lovely, the staff friendly, the menu great, although we weren’t entirely satisfied with our food but will still encourage you to visit, we probably just made the wrong meal choice.

Our next day was a busy one around the city, where we managed to visit ‘Patuxai’- Vientiene’s Arc de Triomphe, Wat Si Saket- a lovely temple and the national monument Pha That Luang. We didn’t come across any busy shopping Malls or fancy hotels; although I’m sure some exist. Nor did we see even one Mc Donalds! Nice.

We only spent the one night in Vientiene, getting a local bus to the border with Thailand, crossed over and got an overnight train to Bangkok. Like a magnet we’re back in Bangkok for a night, but for us it was the easiest way to get to Cambodia especially as we needed to get our last round of vaccination shots- thankfully without the fainting drama this time!

A 5.55am hot, stuffy, packed train brought us to the border, and we enter into Cambodia!