We got to Vientiane after a 6 hour bus journey on the 'King of Bus' with loads of locals. It was such a bumpy trip, it was hilarious, and not a moment went by when we weren't getting shoved side-to-side or up and down. Phil found the trip particularly boring and made Sion aware of that fact almost minutely! When we arrived in Vientiane we had to haggle for a jumbo with lots of locals, they were all paying about 5,000kip and we were offered the same trip for 20,000kip, we walked away and did lots of haggling, eventually getting taken to our destination for half the original price. Not bad considering Falang (tourists) are often charged way more.
We arrived at our chosen guest house to find only one room available and it was a stuffy twin with a small fan. We decided to decline and have a look around. What struck us most about the capital city, apart from the fact there were no beds available anywhere (!!), was how quiet it was (which was very odd as all the guest houses were full!). The streets seemed deserted, a very strange feeling in a capital city, it was comparable to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands! When we finally found a guest house with a double we took it, Joe's Guest House turned out to be a very nice little place, even though we had to share a bathroom with other guests.
That evening we strolled along the river and found a rooftop bar to have a beer in. There were great views over the river and the surrounding area, we instantly liked Vientiane. Dinner was had at a lovely modern Laos place where we both tried the traditional Laos dish of Laap, minced meat/fish with loads of herbs and spring onions. Gorgeous. The next day after a much needed early night we headed out to breakfast/lunch at a Scandinavian bakery. It was a baking hot day and we took our time getting to know the streets. We came across the huge market which took up a whole block and decided to venture in; three hours later we ventured out, thoroughly happy and exhausted! It was great fun looking at all the beautiful silk scarves and trying to haggle down prices. We managed to get Phil a t-shirt for a quid, what a bargain!
We next walked to Vientiane's own Arc de Triomphe, the Patuxai. It was built in the 1960's with concrete that the US had donated for a new airport; hence it's nickname 'the vertical runway'! It was quite an ugly building with four arches and seven floors. It was impressive from far away, but up close it looked like a big pile of concrete, the Laos tourist board themselves described it as "from a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete"... not exactly selling themselves! Great views from the top though, even though Vientiane from above looks quite flat.
That evening we went to a Laos/French restaurant where the French host played us classical piano whilst we were eating! He only stopped very briefly when another diner came up to him in a panic after her face had swollen to twice it's normal size, asking if there was "definitely no fish in the food"... he assured her that there wasn't and carried on playing... perhaps directing her to a doctor would have been better, but that would have spoilt our ambience! The food (with fish) was gorgeous and Phil had a Vientiane beef special, which was basically thinly sliced and fried to death; it was just like eating beef crisps, odd but not gross!
The next day was a bit of an eye opener for Sion; whilst having breakfast we were handed a leaflet for the COPE Visitor Centre. It's a charity that has been set up to provide free prosthetic limbs to those people who have been injured by cluster bombs and other accidents or diseases. During the Vietnam war Laos was subjected to the secret war by the US and was heavily bombed, leaving it the most bombed nation in the world by capita, even to this day. The cluster bombs that were dropped didn't all explode on contact and are still littered around the country today. As Laos is such a poor country and with the increase in value for scrap metal, many of the poorest people are resorting to collecting bombs and trying to disarm them themselves, for the scrap value. That's such a horrible thought that these people are risking their lives for 2,000kip per kg (about 13p). So as a result of visiting the centre (which was a long rainy walk out of town), Sion decided that she's now very interested in becoming a Prosthetist as it ties in her biomechanics/physiology/material science from her previous degree and she'll get to have a hands on and very rewarding job... only problem is, it means four more years at uni! Still, something to think about.
Also that day we had a scrummy lunch at a place run by street children and visited the oldest Wat in Vientiane. Wat Si Saket was very impressive and had over 7,000 Buddha's statues; we took their word for it, we didn't fancy counting them. After spending hours at COPE chatting to the staff we walked back to the guest house for a rest before dinner. Next stop, Vang Vieng, 5 hours north of the capital. Vientiane was such a nice place with a strange feeling of quiet in what should be a very busy city. Bliss.