Vientiane is the quietest capital city I’ve ever been to but still has its little gems – sunset over the Mekong, many French cafes selling yummy food, and wide streets to bike on. The modern Lao meaning of Vientiane is ‘ambiguous’ – aptly named as it seems to be made up of a bit of this and that. It became the capital in 1563 and came under French rule in 1893, hence the French influence on buildings and wide roads.

We checked into our hostel – Wow what a hostel we chose – just kidding, it wasn’t great! We had booked a deluxe 4 bed mixed dorm only to find it had no window, right next door to karaoke til late every night, broken toilet seats, dirty showers and no soap etc. our roomies were also disappointed so we felt better it wasn’t only us. We stayed for two nights (had already paid) then Scott found a nice guesthouse private room up the road for $6 more!

After escaping our hostel, we headed into town to find some food. On the way we tried to find a pharmacy to buy some dressings for Scott’s blisters. We got some interesting directions from a tuktuk driver. After finding the venereal disease clinic where the ‘doctor’ just yelled out ‘tell me where it hurts’, we then headed towards a natural Chinese pharmacy before finally finding a more western type pharmacy which sold a lot of things such as gentamicin cream!

Vientiane has a definite French feel to it, with many ‘French’ cafes dotted on every street selling fresh pastry and coffee! We found a nice one that evening and chilled out.

The following day we hired a bike each (one pink and one blue!) to explore the city easier. The roads are quite wide and traffic slow so it was safe enough, although I still didn’t quite feel right not wearing a helmet. First we went to the tourist information centre, however as it was the weekend it was closed….what??!!!! Continuing down a huge wide street we passed the Patuxai which is the city’s most prominent monument, and looks very similar to the Arc de Triomphe. After taking a few wrong turning and biking quickly to dodge the large black storm clouds brewing up behind us, we reached our destination – Pha That Luang. It’s Laos most important monument and a symbol of the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty. It is a huge impressive golden monument built in 1566 and probably not been water blasted since (very dirty!)and surrounded by high equally dirty golden concrete walls. It is still an active temple but the sign outside describe it as a non-smoking museum! We were caught in a heavy downpour, but luckily we had our kindle and iPad to pastime until the worse if it passed. We quickly checked out some surrounding temples before heading off on our ‘his and hers’ bikes – it was still raining so I tried to bike while holding an umbrella but it proved too much of a driving hazard so ditched that pretty quickly, especially when I heard a local woman laughing at me!

Next stop was COPE visitor centre (Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise) which has a fantastic display on unexplored ordinances left in Laos from the Vietnam war. It described many stories of those who have lost an arm or leg simply by walking in the wrong place, or cooking in the wrong place (fires heat up the ground that unexplored ordinances are buried in and they explode). Its such a tragedy and still occurring today. The COPE centre is the primary source of artificial limbs, wheelchairs and walking aids in Laos, and also has a rehabilitation service which caters for amputees as well as those with other physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy and club foot.

We cycled back to the city centre along the side of the Mekong River and found a great little corner cafe with yummy iced coffees and chocolate croissants! Our afternoon was sorted,

The following day we packed up and moved up the road to a nice guest house and private room for only $6 more than our noisy dirty hostel. Our plan for the day involved getting back to the Thai border 24km away to see the Buddha park. First, we had to get to the bus station, which with some fierce haggling we managed to get a ride halfway and STILL tried to charge us double – cheeky man!! Lucky for us our bus was waiting ready to leave so we caught it for $1, it was modern and air conditioned and cheap! Once we reached the border we needed to get to Buddha Park 6 km away and only way was by Tuktuk. We were stuck with options so the tuk tuk drivers can charge us double than the local which they did! It was a bumpy ride along the pot holed dirt road with ten people sitting in the back but was fun all the same!

The Buddha Park was a bit weird but interesting all the same time. It was the size of half a football field fill of huge concrete Buddhist and Hindi sculptures, built by a very eccentric guy in 1958. One of the sculptures looked like a giant pumpkin which you could actually climb – a massive OSH risk!!

When we finished we went back the road to get a tuk tuk back to the border but the driver wouldn’t leave until the tuk tuk was full and we were in the middle of nowhere! Scott tried to thumb down a few cars and eventually a jeep stopped and picked us up! The driver was the Laos national tennis coach and going all the way back to Vientiane so dropped up right in town which we were stocked about! We visited two last temples, which were beautiful, one of which use to house the famous Emerald Buddha which now resides in Bangkok.
That evening we walked along the Mekong and watched a beautiful sunset over Thailand (other side of the Mekong) while listening and sometimes watching 200 people doing aerobics on the river front. After a cold beer on a rooftop bar and yummy meal we headed home as we had a long 11 hour bus trip the next day to Luang Prabang.