Vientiane, and pictures of Bangkok uploaded

We landed on our feet in Vientiane, we're staying at Le Leela hotel, and basically have the place completely to ourselves. Who said Laos had to be third world :o]

So aside from nice accommodation, what do I make of it? Well, to be honest I wasn't expecting a lot, and I was probably very unfair to Laos in seeing it as a gateway to Ha Noi. Vientiane definitely isn't hustle and bustle, fast paced or metropolitan. What is apparent, is Vientiane is finding it's feet, apparently with occasional backing from some wealthier neighbours (a Malay shopping centre, Japanese funded clinics), and an increase in tourism.

Aside from a fine selection of Wat (Buddhist Temples), and a very small CBD (think smaller than Hinckley) there's not a lot to do, a few swimming pools, a decent selection of eateries, bars and street vendors, that's your lot, from a tourism point of view. What it does have is a serving of French culture, apparently a few of them landed here and made an impression - probably running from a war. The positive result is some decent food (we don't like to admit it, but French cuisine cannot be denied), and here in Laos, you get plenty of fine dining for your money.

Today we hired (another) two wheeled bundle of joy... a 110cc monster. Great for getting around, and given the traffic here is by any standards low, our £4 a day bike is well recommended. Tomorrow, or possibly Sunday we shall go to Ban Na, at the National Park where we shall go in search of Elephants, Tigers, Bears, Baboons and if we're really lucky - some more Mosquito's, which also seem to like Laos, and Miranda, a lot. The weapon of choice for that will be a Honda Baja as we'd probably kill our 'ped.

We're forced to stay here until at least Monday, as the Vietnamese Embassy (your only means of a VISA, $50 please) apparently can't process it before then. Monday we hope to get a bus to Vang Vieng for tubing (floating down the river for 3.5km on an inner-tube, drinking Beer Lao from one of many floating bars) and a visit to the caves there. Probably two days later, we head to Luang Probang the old capital to see the apparently wonderful Wat and other historic interests. Then we must press on to the border towards Ha Noi to meet Rik and Rach... our travelling buddies for the week. Rik, Yorkshire teabags, ok?

So that's us in a nutshell. As a final note, feel free to take a peek at the photos'/video we've been trying to get up to scratch with!