After many changes of mind, we decided not to go to Southern Laos, but instead to get back to Thailand from Vientiane, in order to (finally) get to the beaches!

From Luang Prabang, we took a van ride south to Vang Vieng - it turned out to be our scariest ride ever: we almost hit a few cars coming the other way while we were passing trucks and other slower vehicules (which turned out to be almost every other vehicules…), saw a few accidents, and slalomed to avoid the cows that sleep on the road at night.

however, we had a break in a little town where we had a chance to buy some pineapple and other local products, as well as observing weird little animals on sale there

the scenery was also very nice

we finally made it safe and sound to Vang Vieng, where the tuk-tuk scammed us by not taking us to our guesthouse, but instead by dropping us in the middle of the town, which by night looks like Las Vegas, only with more shirtless boys and girls in bikinis, most of them drunk and high…

We stayed in a guesthouse out of town, with small private bungalows along the river, and that was a great choice. It’s across the river, and you have to take a toll pedestrian bridge to reach it

In the morning, we set out for the town, so Roland can see a doctor at the hospital for his “elephant rash” - the place looks like it’s from a movie in the 50’s

Unfortunately the rest of the town confirmed our first impression that there wasn’t much to do, except “tubing”: old tires are used as buoys to get down the river, and we found the same young crowd in front of the starting point… that and the fact that the river is really muddy were two good reasons NOT to do it!

There’s a small island on the river, where many bars are concentrated. You must cross hand-made bridges that look very fragile

It’s a miracle that there isn’t one drunk teenager falling from it and drowning in the river every night!

As usual in Laos, the driving rules don’t seem to apply, and that’s why you’ll find motorbikes on the pedestrian bridges

Another thing to do it to rent bikes, since the surrounding area is actually very nice, but by then we were just tired of Vang Vieng and of Laos, so we took the VIP bus down to Vientiane - here is Roland posing beside the “King of Bus”

That ride was much quieter - let’s just mention the accident that blocked us for an hour on the road:

A cement truck dipped other in the rice paddy, and towing trucks were trying to get it out.

We walked around town, and we actually found Vientiane rather a nice and relaxed town!

The French influence is very visible, especially for the restaurant names!

We finally figured out why lao people drive so badly: the “office for the safety on the road” is still on construction!

The presidential palace

Of course, it wouldn’t be Laos if there wasn’t some “wats” around…

… as well as baguette sandwiches

The famous black stupa of Vientiane

Some old french-looking house

As we quickly figured out, this sign doesn’t actually mean “STOP”, but is rather an invitation for the driver to turn his/her head left and right before crossing the intersection…

And there comes the Mekong again!

The ambiance is very relaxed, with kids running around playgrounds, and family hanging out on a lazy sunday evening…

And, of course, “petang”!

We imitated the locals by sitting down on one of many improvised restaurant along the bank of the river, and had a couple of BBQ sausages

Beerlao is the one (and only?) local beer, and they give a lot of goodies to all the restaurants, including the napkin dispenser (aka toilet paper holder)

Another occasion to enjoy the big zoom on Kathyrn’s camera, and spy out on local people ;-)

At some point, they installed the lights for the tables

sunset is coming…

kath is falling asleep…

The next day, we took the bus to cross the Mekong, ie the border with Thailand

After a short and overpriced cab ride (which turned out to be a pick-up ride), we arrived at the train station

We took the sleeper train to Bangkok, and then a connecting train for Southern Thailand.

We had bought some cheap green and red curries before boarding in Bangkok, but actually they serve free meals on this train (just like a plane!)

At the time of writing, we just got off the train in southern Thailand, waiting for out night boat to Ko Tao (the first island that we want to visit). We’ve been on the road for more than 24 hours already, and slept very badly, and we are planned to arrive on the beach at approximately 7am tomorrow (local time), that is after 41 hours of travel from Vientiane… We’ll give an update as soon as we’ve slept more than 4 hours in a row!