In Vientiane - capital of Laos

I arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, where I have a very nice hotel. The atmosphere changes completely from Luan Prabang: modern cars, commercials, couloured lights everywhere. Still, for a capital, Vientiane is a very laid back city. By the way: fortunately my diarrhea is over.. So I could walk around and visit the city. The main attraction here is the Pha Tha Luang ("great sacred reliquary"). It is a huge "stupa" (reliquary) covered all in gold.




They also have a "champs Elysees" of the East here, which somehow resembles the one in Paris and has also an "Arc de Triomphe" (see photo) which is built of concrete which should have served for a new runway of the airport. I climbed up and there was a really beautiful view. The most strange thing was however a book which I saw on the shop on the top of this monument: among all the other books about Laos, there was this book about a trip through Germany(see picture) !! I really wonder how this came here and who could want to buy this here while visiting this monument.










I also went to Lao Airlines, but it is hopeless: I will not get my flight down to the south (I am third on the waiting list only). Therefore the only choice is to take the bus in order to be in Pakse on the 20 January in the morning and I have to be there at 8 since I have already booked a 1+4 days excursion. The normal bus takes 14-16 hours (forget it !! Even the lonely plnaet says that this is only for masochists !!!) There are also so called VIP buses (which do not stop in every little village), but they leave only once per day at 8:30 in the evening. The indications how long they take for the 677 km vary quite considerably from one travel agency to the next: between 8 and 12 hours - quite precise... ;-)

One agency offers buses with beds, which is probably what I will do as I am sure that I will not be able to sleep on a normal bus.. Their bus does not stop at all on the way and goes directly to Pakse in 10 hours. However, the time I needed to reflect on all this, the agency was closed and reopens tomorrow morning at 8:30. I just hope that they will still have a ticket for me. SUSPENS !!