Vientiane

Bright lights and big city?!? Well not quite, this is Laos we are talking about and the capital city though it is Vientiane feels more like a large town – and a very nice town at that. Similar to parts of Vietnam, Vientiane shows its French history, the architecture, the street names, the Arc De Triomphe! Yep, it actually has one and unlike the Notre Dame in Ho Chi Minh it is actually quite impressive. We spent a day just exploring the city, Wats and all… temples a plenty, the banks of the Mekong (again Thailand can be seen just on the other side) and a few nice bars and cafes along the way. Wandering around town you really wouldn’t think this was a capital city, the streets are quiet, there’s no hussle and bussle like in other Asian cities – its all rather pleasant and makes for a nice change.
Having spent her birthday in a small stilt hut eating stale crisps at least here I could try and spoil Shona a little, so I’d booked us into a nice hotel, the first one since our little slice of luxury in Oz, although it didn’t compare to that one! It was a small boutique hotel complete with spiral staircase, mini bar and complimentary sweets in the room! It also had a nice riverside restaurant next door, problem was although it was on the bank of the river the water was about 200m away! The Lao people blame the Chinese for low levels of water due to damming… and the Chinese blame the weather!!
Whilst in town we also had to arrange our Chinese visa’s, this meant an extra day relaxing in our fancy hotel room – well, not quite, didn’t actually spend that much time in it to be honest! Instead we hired a moped and headed out to visit a Buddha park an hour or so outide of town. The park is one man’s slight obsession with all things Buddha, especially things that are over 8 foot tall and statues! They were all laid across a small garden and was quite cool to see, if not a little strange. So an extra day down, another chilled evening in a bar in town, visas in passports and we are refreshed and ready to move on again.