We arrived aty Vientiene after a long but funny bus journey involving an incredibly overcrowded bus where two canadians were given plastic stools and told to sit in the aisle for an overnight journey! At the end of the night, we think they actually had the best deal though as they got to lie on the floor whereas we were cramped up on our seats. We wanted to get a bus straight to Pakse (in the South) so that we could get to Si Phan Don and so we set of in search for the bus station. This turned out to be more of a challenge than expected and a complete wild goose chase. It was 5am and we had barely slept so were not too amused when we ended up trapsing around all 4 of the cities bus stations, without success. Eventually we headed into the town to book the tourist night bus. This left us with the day to explore Vientiene which is the capital of Laos.
We started off with breakfast at our favourite laotian bakery-JoMa where we sat/slept for a good two hours until we set off to see the city. We hired a tuk-tuk and after much bartering, convinced him to take us to all the main sites. First stop, Buddha's Collarbone! This is supposed to be one of the most sacred places in Laos. It was a temple complex with one main huge golden temple which is said to house Buddha's collarbone. We weren't allowed actually inside but follwed some monks up to where we could walk around and peer in. Around the main golden temples were several smaller, modern temples which were painted top to bottom, in gharish colour and style, the whole story of Buddha's life. They were less peaceful than some of the other places we visited.
Next stop was Laos's interpretation of the Arc De Triomphe - the so called "vertical runway' named so because it was built out of the cement donated by the americans in order to build a new runway for the international airport...we suppose the Laotian authorities had other ideas!
There was another old temple along the way - it was perhaps the most beautiful as it was made out of teak wood and the interior was carved with very detailed depictions of buddhist history- much more tasteful than the modern, painted versions.
Post-tour we found a fab cafe that had loads of boardgames so we played frustration and battleships- was great! realised that we missed funny things from home.
About 7pm we got a tuk-tuk to the bus station with a really nice group of people who were also travelling through the night to Si Phan Don with us. It was to be a very long night.