Alison: We flew in to Vientiane which is the capital of Laos and we immediately caused problems for the visa officials as the visa had to be paid for in US$ which we didn't have. How come every one else knew this but us....damn the Lonely Planet!! After much sighing and eye rolling, we were accompanied to a money exchange counter to get the $. When we finally made it through the airport we got a taxi to the centre and found a guesthouse.

Vientiane is the weirdest capital city that I have ever seen. I'd read that it was a sleepy place but this was crazy! It was like a small town. The centre is set up for tourists with guesthouses, hotels, restaurants and cafes but there are very few shops. The only shops we found were just out of town in a small 'shopping center' which was which was more like an indoor market really. The tourist area is built around a large fountain which only works sporadically. There are some really nice cafes and restaurants and lots of bakeries selling delicious baguettes and pastries. Laos was colonised by the French in the past and there is still a strong French influence running throughout the country. The cafe culture is strong in Laos and we ended up spending many an hour relaxing in the many cafes slurping on iced cocoas and cappuccinos. The streets of Vientiane are dusty and the road is often crumbling away so it is quite strange to see these modern cafes and restaurants. They just don't seem to fit in with the rest of the place!

Another weird thing about Vientiane is the lack of traffic on the road. Most capitals cities roads are in total gridlock 24/7 but not Vientiane! Some of the roads are really broad with several lanes but there is no traffic on them which we thought may have been done in preparation for the future when the place will undoubtedly expand. We spoke to someone who had visited Laos a year ago and they said that since that time it had been developed almost beyond recognition. We are really glad we have seen the place now because soon it is just going to be like any other SE Asian capital city.

Vientiane has very little to do in the evening. There is a bowling alley which is hidden away and is very old fashioned. One night we did get desperate and went to a local singing contest in the large cultural center. We were the only foreigners there so we got a few curious looks. It was nothing like the x-factor! The singing was very unusual and we didn't stay long but there was one guy that will remain in our memories. He was very short and he had the most spectacular little camp dance moves. The crowd loved him!! Vientiane does have quite a few bars but you can't stay out late in Laos because there is a national curfew in place which says everybody must be in the place they are registered to be by 11.30. This seems very controlling to me but the locals didn't seem to mind. Laos is a communist country so they are probably used to such restrictions. The rules are said to be quite flexible for tourists but still it is difficult as many guesthouses insist you must be back by 10pm! We managed to get plenty of beauty sleep whilst in Laos!!!


Nigel: One thing we did notice when we got into Laos was the currency we had to deal with. Except for the airport where dollar was required, ever where else we had to use their currency which was called Kip. Over the past several months we have had to adapt to the many different currencies in each of the countries that we have been in. More often then not the conversion rate was low so it was fairly easy. Laos, however, has the conversion rate of 13,000 Kip to the Pound, so 76 Pound sterling would make you a millionaire in Laos money. How good it felt to be millionaires for the day. With such big numbers to deal with at first it did seem very difficult to work out and also you were only aloud to take out 700,000 Kip per transaction. To help us to get to grips with this we did have to resort to buying a calculator.

Laos did seem hotter than most places we had been for a while. One reason for this could be due to the country being land locked, so no coastal wind came to cool you down. The room we had in the guesthouse was OK but we did try and stay the whole duration there just on a fan to keep us cool. We manged to survive the 5 nights using the fan but we don't think we had the best of sleeps as it did get very uncomfortable at times. The guesthouse also didn't have any computers or WIFI that we could use but we found out it is only the big hotels and some cafes that provide this service and it's still a new thing in Laos. We did find a nice cafes that had free WIFI and A/C which helped but as you had to buy a quite expensive drink, the WIFI in reality wasn't free.

We had read in the book that there is a copy of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which is called Patuxai. Its is also known as the Vertical Runway as The Patuxai was built with money that was donated to Laos by the USA to build a runway. Even the road leading up to the Patuxai is supposed to be like the Champs Elysees in Paris. You could see the monument from a long distance away as the roads either side of it are very long and very straight but it was easy to find. You can pay a small entrance fee and climb the stairs to the top and look at panoramic view of the city below. You can see most of the city from up there as Vientiane is very small place. As you ascend down from the top there are 2-3 floors of small market stalls that your able to buy small gifts, T-shirts etc. On the same day we also went to the main Wat (temple) that is situated not far from the Patuxai. Before entering you have to pay a small fee. The sign on the the gate had 2 entrance fee amounts. 1 for Laos people and 1 for foreigners. This seems to be a common thing in Asia and back home I don't think we would be able to discriminate this way. We did try and say we were from Laos, but the lady on the gate was having none of it. Within the Wat there are the usual statues of Buddhas and temples but this one was different from the others as it had over 2 thousand minature Buddhas resting in formed shelf's within the wall. We didn't stay to count them all but it was different to see.

The capital is situated along the Mekong river and its width at the point where we were was around a quatar of a mile. The other side is Thailand and it is where you're able to cross the border by boat.One thing that was very obvious when you got into Vientiane was the lack of Western known shops. This for us was great as sometimes when they are readily available they are too easy to use and detracts from the travelling experience. We found out later that this is a common thing throughout Laos and it was nice to get away from it all. We do hope that they don't fall for the temptation of allowing these stores to come to the country (McDonald's especially) as I am sure they can survive on their other forms of tourism and allow local business to develop with the increase of tourists.

One day we decided to venture to a spa which had a write up in our guide book. So to treat ourselves for the day we decide to take a tuk tuk up there. It cost us 50,000 Kip (4 pound each) for a 1 hr body massage and the use of the facilities all day which included gym, sauna, steam room and a large pool. The pool did get very over crowded in the afternoon with kids as it seemed that all the expats in Laos where there when we were there. We decided to walk back and see the other parts of Vientiane that we hadn't already seen. One thing that we did notice was when we walked past a tuk tuk they didn't hassle us and allowed us to walk past freely. In Asia this is a very rare event.

To sum up Vientiane you would have to say that it is not like any other capital city that we have been to but in one respect, that was very refreshing. It is obliviously growing in size but hopefully it will grow at a rate that they can control and are happy with. We are very glad we went and if you get chance to go, our advice would be to go sooner rather than later as you might not see it in the same light as we did.