Vientiane is nothing of what I expected it to be! For some reason I thought it would be this isolated Indochina outpost – a bit backward maybe, a bit of a cowboy town with basic food and accomadation… but ahhh NO!
We seem to be located in the downtown tourist centre, an area of about 5 blocks, where there appear to be more foreigners than Laotians – an endless supply of Western food, Internet cafes every 50m, many more cars than motorbikes (and no honking of horns!!) and a very laid back lifestlye. I think the reason it is soooooo tourist orientated is because it has become the “add on trip” to a Thai holiday since the Friendship bridge was put in place a few years ago .. the place to come and chill out at the end of a holiday.
The weather is cooler, in fact it is quite wet at the moment as we are experiencing abit of monsoon rainshine, and the humidity is much less than Vietnam. All in all not a bad place to spend a week.
Ross has hived off for acouple of days to Vang Vieng, a few hours up the road, to experience some water rafting/tubing down the river but Ive decided water (apart from swimming pools and beachside) is not really my thing. So I have opted to experience more of the hedonistic delights of what Vientiane has to offer – great food, so-so beer, lao massage and just lazing about 
The food is fantastic here .. or did I mention that already! Today I began the day with an American breakfast of omelete, bagets, juice and tea. After a stroll around some of the temple sights (between showers) I had the most delicious pineapple crumble and iced chocolate for morning tea at a bakery. More sight seeing and photo ops was followed by a lunch of Tika Masala in a back street “Taj Mahal” restaurant, with Lassi and Indian tea (I keep forgetting Indian only comes with rice if you order it seperately – so no rice).
Then it was back to the hotel for a power nap and to recharge the camera batteries, then off for a shave. Best shave yet while on tour! The guy will even clean your ear wax out with cotton wool on long sticks if requested.
Dinner was a Lao spicy chicken curry, with a side of baby pork ribs and a plate of poached mushrooms and herbs. The tastes and texture were incredible. All this washed down with some Lao beer – which incidentially has to be drunk fairly fast as even with air conditioning, the beer gets warm rather quick. We actually added ICE to keep the beer cool in some parts of Veitnam. A delightful day
We have also bought our air tickets to Kunming ($120 each) and fly out Friday morning at the crack of dawn – yet again – we need to be at the airport by 4:30am this time.
