Mum, I'm FINE: Vientiane

28-29/04/2017

This was kind of an odd city. It's the capital of Laos so it's pretty big, and sits right on the bank of the Mekong and there are some things to see but we didn't really like the city that much. We braved the chaos of the local bus and went a few kms out of the city to see the Buddha Park, which was a park, full of Buddhas.

Buddhas in a park.

And we also went to a really interesting UXO (unexploded ordinance) Museum and did some learning about mines and cluster bombs, and also we visited the Laos version of the Arc de Triomph - a concrete construction that manages to be both hideous and majestic.

Ew.

I wasn't feeling all that great at this part of the trip which possibly affected my attitude towards the place. Maybe some kind of reaction from the disgusting amount of insect bites or the river water I accidentally swallowed or beer I purposefully drank. Who knows.

We left on the 'King of Bus'' to Pakse. I think it was a 13 hour trip - we were on a night bus and I wasn't expecting to sleep much so I made sure I downloaded some podcasts and had something to read - all of which was made redundant as I pretty much passed out as soon as we got going; turns out I bloody love the sleeper bus.

GOOD LUCK???? WHY DO I NEED LUCK?!?!

Prize for worst meal of the trip goes to the bus

Pakse was pretty small but we loved it for the temple ruins we visited nearby, and we used it as a base for the two day scooter odyssey we took to the Bolivan Plateau where we met some lovely Americans and also played in lots of waterfalls and managed to navigate the awful roads without any disasters.
It was on this trip that I realised that I hate going fast on a scooter. I literally am happier skiing at a faster pace than the 45kph that I averaged on the road... but our brief experience on a dirt track convinced me that I would be an ace dirtbike rider as my perfect balance and engine control are really second to none.