Laos for now

We have arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Its a welcome change of pace from Bangkok. Its still a little bit busy, but the streets are wider, there aen't as many tourists and nobody seems to be in a rush to do anything. Our hotel is pretty French looking, as are alot of the buildings here.

The overnight train from Bangkok wasn't too bad and the beds were alot comfier than those on the Vietnamese sleeper trains. We got to the border at about 9:30 this morning after having 5 people and all of our luggage crammed into one tuk-tuk. The price is worked out by how many people they take, so they squeeze in as many as possible! Going through the border was nice and quick and easy and the people were actually very helpful. Our passports are filling up nicely with stamps and visas now!

When we arrived we went to change money and got over 1,000,000 kip for $140! We went to a very western style cafe for lunch and it was pretty good, I had the biggest ever ham sandwich on focaccia bread and Charlotte had a cream cheese bagel.

We went and hired bikes and went for a cycle round to see some of the sights as we are only here for a day before going to Vang Vieng tomorrow. We saw the victory arch, which is a similar idea to the arc de triomphe. The story behind it is, when the French left they gave the Laotian government a whole load of concrete to build an airport, but they decide to build a bigger arch than the French had instead, just to spite them. We climbed up the top and got some good photos of the city.

Next we took a cycle out to see some temples and a big gold stupa which was pretty impressive. We then cycled back to the hotel to rest up and escape from the heat! Apparently there is a bowling alley round the corner from the hotel so we are going bowling tonight! Very cultural!

The nautical star has each of its points divided in half down the middle and is half black and half red. Charlotte is very sensible and did not get a tattoo. Shona and Andrew didn't waste any time on the puppy front did they? Say happy Birthday to Nana for me. We have sent some postcards so hopefully they'll be reaching you all soon.

Hope everyone is doing well. Speak to you soon.