It felt good to leave Vang Vieng, I liked the activities you can do there, including the partying, but I didn’t like the town itself. It’s so full of tour operators and backpacker oriented bars and restaurants that serve sub par western food. It almost feels like the place has been tainted by tourism. 

I visited Vientiane back in 2009 so I didn’t really have to go there again but I’m hoping I can get the luggage racks properly fixed. Also, I don’t mind seeing some of the sights again since it’s been seven years since then. 

The road from Vang Vieng down to Vientiane is much straighter than other roads in this country and consequently a lot faster  but there wasn’t much to see along the way.

  • The most interesting form of transport: the tractorfier. The engine and front wheels can be bought as one package them hooked onto any kind of cart to create a motorized vehicle.
  • Just at the outskirts of Vientiane there is a place where the popular thing to do seems to be taking a cruise in one of these floating restaurants . 

When I arrived in my hostel I barely had time to drop off my bags before a guy asked if I could give him a ride to the embassy to pick up his passport. Being a nice guy I consented. He turned out to be  Russian on a round the world trip doing a video blog (for people who speak Russian). He’s also a nice guy so we once he had his passport we went sightseeing together.

Patuxai is a kind of arc de triomphe built by the Laotian government in 1957 to celebrate independence from France. Interesting note, the concrete used was originally a donation meant for a new airport. 

  • The Patuxai arch
  • I like this spire on top of the roof

We also went to the most famous temple in the city, Pha That Luang but it was closed so we could only see it from the outside. 

  • Pha That Luang 
  • Alex in front of the the statue of King Setthathirath. 
  • These miniature figures on the base of the statue are pretty cool. I like the offering of two cigarettes too.

With not much more to do, as everything was closing we, headed back to the hostel for dinner then called it a night. Tomorrow I will try to get the luggage rack fixed then do a bit more sightseeing.