Mar 21-22 - Tat Fan to Vientiane via Pakse - Waking up to the sound of Tat Fan falls was great. We showered, breakfasted, and headed back out to Pakse. We saw the German 'bikers' waiting at the local tuk-tuk stop, still in their leather pants, and with not a bike in sight. Oh well, they looked happy together. We turned out onto the main road, and before we knew it, we were back in Pakse. We'd been unsure where to go next, but we eventually thought that we'd skip central Laos, and take the overnight bus to Vientiane, which would also save us spending another day in Pakse. The Champasak Hotel gave us a room for the day (at half price), which was cool ... it just gave us a chance to shower, repack, and upload some blogs which were falling woefully behind (and are still about three weeks delayed!)

We dropped off our bike at the Lankham hotel, who also sold us tickets for the bus. Then, we had lunch at a little Indian restaurant, called Nazim's, which was good, and chatted to a couple of travellers that we'd met before, including the wierd little Austrian guy. It was his last day, and he looked crestfallen to be heading back to late winter in Europe. We headed back to our hotel, rested up a bit, and then grabbed our bags & headed down to Lankham, where the bus was picking us up.

The night buses are pretty elaborate creations. They've been lovingly spraypainted in Thailand by artists drawing inspiration from all kinds of sources - Hindu godesses share panel space with mythical beasts and scenes from "Finding Nemo". All on the same bus! They've also decorated the interior with frilly pink curtains, and ornately engraved metalwork. We'd got a pair of seats at the top, which were just in front of the stairwell, so no-one was in front of us. The bus was a mix of locals and foreigners, with the TV at the front blaring karaoke hits at top volume. We set off from Pakse exactly on time, and after about ten minutes, they came rushing around the bus with dinner (take-away curry in cardboard cartons), face towels and blankets. It was like being in an airplane with a strangely rocking flight motion. We read a few pages, and then ratcheted our seats back (they go almost horizonal) and amazingly managed to fall asleep straight away.

At about 1AM, the lights came back on, and we juddered into the parking lot of the bus station at Tha Kaek. This is a town on the Thai border, which serves as a general transport hub between Thailand and Laos. There were dozens of buses in the lot, and we looked slightly jealously at some of the real 'sleeper' buses, where you have a bed, instead of a chair. They were all spraypainted with fantastical imagery, and it was quite trippy to see them all pulling in and out. A real bustling night-market had opened up to cater for bleary-eyed voyagers, where we bought a bit of snacky food from the vendors. The loo on the bus was kind of weird, as well. Although it had been clearly designed as a bus toilet, and could easily have had a flush button - there was still a bucket of water with a scoop in the corner, rattling around as the bus ground northwards towards the capital ... like most other places, I guess it's just about giving people what they're used to?

We set off again, and actually got back to sleep pretty sharp-ish. We had one small disturbance at 4AM, when a woman a couple of rows behind us obviously woke up feeling bored, and started playing back the ring-tones on her new mobile phone at top volume. Wierd. Anyway, I think eventually she looked up, and the red-rimmed, dark-ringed eyes glaring at her from around the bus convinced her to put it away!

We pulled into the outskirts of Vientiane, just as the sun was coming up. The bus stopped at the Southern bus station, and we caught a jumbo into town - jumbos are the local transport, and are basically small trucks with two benches running along each side of the bed. We got dropped off at our hotel - the Intercity - at about 6-ish, but we were actually feeling pretty fresh, all things considered. Unfortunately, our room was only going to be ready at midday, so we dropped off our backpacks, and headed out to explore the town a bit.

Laos is definately a place where people don't go to bed too late, and also don't get up too early - this was a paradise for Cheryl, who loves to sleep in, and even I had been getting eight or nine hours a night, for probably the first time since leaving school. Vientiane was no exception to this, and the streets were still fairly silent as we left the hotel to get oriented. The capital is scattered along the eastern bank of the Mekong river, with Thailand on the other side. It's entirely comprised of low-storey buildings, the only exception in the whole place is the Don Chan Palace, a garish high-rise lump that was built on the Don Chan island for the Asean conference here. That aside, the town is actually quite beautiful; it's full of picturesque wats in frangipani gardens, and the government buildings are mostly laid out in large grounds, with whitewashed walls and low-swept, brightly coloured roofs. There are also many beautifully restored (and some run-down) colonial era-buildings - the mixture of French proportions and wood shuttered windows with the sweeping, double-pitched Lao roofs works really well, and strolling down some of the streets was like stepping back in time.

Although most of Vientiane was still fast asleep, we found an open bakery, and sat down outside for a coffee and breakfast, watching the city's residents emerge for the morning around us. There is clearly a huge expat community, and people of all ages, sizes, shades and shapes started to hit the streets from about seven o'clock. There's a buzz of sorts in the air, but it's very muted ... this place has definately not lost the laid back air that Laos is so famous for. There's also a definite bit of French cafe culture, and students, aid workers, locals and tourists were all clustering around the various cafes and restaurants for a morning coffee and croissant before school or work. Two little dogs wandered out in front of our cafe entrance, and sat down patiently; whenever someone came out of the front doors bearing food, they'd start to carry out a little acrobatic dance, and ended up with a fair bit of pattiserie by the time we'd finished up. They were obviously well known to all the locals, and after they'd fleeced the regulars, they trotted off down the street together with their bellies swaying from side to side below them.

After breakfast, we wandered the streets of central Vientiane for a couple of hours, just people-watching. We strolled the banks of the Mekong, and came across a shop with the most fanstastic silk weavings - it was called Caruso Lao, and they had rooms and rooms full of elaborate, hand-woven silk. Lao silk weaving can be really complicated, with patterns woven thread by thread in a whole range of designs and colours. Something like a bedcover can take up to six months for a single weaver to complete! Anyway, we'd been pretty good about not shopping so far, but broke our run; we bought a whole lot of presents here, and headed back to our hotel to see if our room was ready yet.

The Intercity hotel is actually a great place. The name makes it sound like a soulless chain, but it's just a little four-storey place overlooking the Mekong. It's decorated with all sorts of Lao antiques - wood panels, copper bowls and huge stone carvings. THe room was great, and a hot shower was most welcome after a long day out in the heat. They also had slightly temperamental wi-fi in the room, so we could at least connect up and try to get back up to date with things in the rest of the world. We had an afternoon snooze, and then headed out to find a place for dinner. We walked north along the Mekong, and came to a little place called the Spirit House, which had a few tables overlooking the river. Ordered some springrolls and chicken satay, and drank a couple of Beerlaos just watching the river go by. The town has a nice vibe in the evening - all the food vendors open their stalls along the river, and markets spring up on the pavements of the promenade. It was a balmy night, and we wandered around for a bit soaking it all up before heading back to the hotel.