Whistle stop trip to Vientiane

We only have a 30 day visa in Laos and its dawned on us we are quickly running short, but still have so much to see so I think the next couple of places are going to be whistle stop tours. Next stop the capital, Vientiane.

For once we had a great night sleep, no Cockerells or manic dogs, and for once we were up and out early! We picked up our breakfast and lunch and headed to the bus station. The morning bus we wanted to catch was only a local one... after our experience with locals travelling when in Huay Xai let's just say we weren't so keen. We went for it anyway, the bus was absolutely jam packed with rice sacks, luggage, locals, us and a German guy on the very back seats. We waited outside the bus until the very last minute! While waiting the bus driver was cutting into a strange plant and eating something from inside. I asked him what he was and he offered me one... it was a maggot!!! I did not want to eat that before a 8 hour journey which was no doubt going to make me travel sick anyway!

The journey although not as bad as we thought it might be was still very rough. We were constantly being bounced out of our seats and holding on for dear life, of course there weren't seat belts. We were being thrown out of our seats so much that our mi band pedometer thought were walking and by lunch time we had done our 10,000 steps even though we had barely done 100! For lunch we were very excited to have our omelette sandwich but we're very disappointed, we opened them up to find laughing cow cheese and salad. Not ideal but food all the same!

We eventually got to bus station in Vientiane and of course the station was miles out of town. The haggling begam with the tuk tuk driver saying 50,000 kip each. I laughed at him and said 10,000 Kip each person, he said no, so I said 20,000 to which he said no 50,000 for the 3 of us. I don't think his maths was great so we ended up with a bargain ☺️ We started walking to our hostel after being dropped off central and the heavens opened. Luckily we weren't so far from the hostel and got in just in the nick of time. However, it's so bad that we weren't able to go out for dinner so ate our rations of an apple, banana, longan berries and coconut crunch sticks while watching peaky blinders.

The next day it rained once again but we went to book our bus ticket, saw endless wats and took a bus ride to Buddha Park. Buddha Park was created by a guy who wanted to portray the Buddhism and Hinduism sculptures. It was different and definitely worth the small bus ride out of town. We then visited Laos very own Arc de Triumph, Patuxay and finished the afternoon sipping a pineapple and coconut shake and grabbing dinner before getting our 10.5 hour sleeper bus to Pakse.

We arrived at the station with an hour and half to spare only to be told the bus is leaving at 7pm! It was exactly 7 when we arrived and the bus was completely empty! Phew we made it. I think we were spoilt by the sleeper train. It's not quite the luxury we had on the sleeper train... Let's see how the night goes...

Ok I was going to stop the blog for the day and update in the next footprint but this is too funny. So as I mentioned we jumped on the bus at 7pm and off we go. Journey felt like it was going OK, but all of a suddenly the bus turned around drove back to the station. God knows why it left an hour and half early just to turn around, go back to the station and pick up everyone else. No wonder the bus was so empty! It's now fully packed and off we go again!Read more