13th November - Vientiane, 18°N 102°E, day 105
Pub quiz question: ‘What is the capital of Laos?’. We didn’t know either.
We nearly didn’t catch the bus from Sihanoukville back to Phnom Penh as Phil had
(as part of a zero-tolerance approach to redundant bits of paper) thrown the bus
tickets in the bin before we left Mushroom Point. We had a bit of fun in the car
on the way to the bus station as Phil was convinced that Hollie had the bus tickets
and Hollie knew that she had given them to Phil. After a few minutes of denial, Phil
started to remember getting the tickets. Another minute and he linked them with the
tickets he had put in the bin earlier that day. “It’s ok”, says the guy driving us,
“you don’t need the tickets”. When we get there it seems you do, really, and we leave
him with instructions on which bin to find them in. Our experience of the bin-emptying
regime at Mushroom Point suggested there was every chance they would still be there.
At the half-way stop on the bus we try some of the anaemic-looking savoury dumplings
which are a popular street food here. The one we tried was largely vegetarian - apart
from the pork. As any fule kno, wafer-thin ham is always acceptable to vegetarians;
lumps of pork: never.
We said our fond farewells to Hollie at departures, her hand luggage bulging with
the three small dogs she befriended on the way to the airport. Just before she goes,
Hollie gives us a challenge: to go somewhere new without booking accommodation before
we get there...
Not sure we need Hollie’s challenge as we seem to be creating enough of our own.
As well as throwing away the bus tickets, we hadn’t really planned ahead when it
came to getting the ‘visa on arrival’ at Vientiane airport. The visas cost $35 each
and we had a grand total of $12. Not entirely sure if we would be deported back to
Cambodia if we didn’t have the cash, we decided to see if we could pay with our emergency
money (£50 in sterling - only suitable for small emergencies, we know). The immigration
man was very nice as he said it had to be dollars and suggested we see the woman
from the airport. She escorted Karen through the border into the airport where Karen
converted the money into dollars and we got our visas! As has happened a couple of
times now the whole process took us longer than anyone else and our bags were waiting
for us in an otherwise completely empty baggage reclaim area. As Phil went to get
some cash (£1 ≈ 12,000 Kip) out of an ATM in the airport it crossed his mind that
this may be the third cock-up of the day as we had never told our bank that we were
going to Laos (not part of the original plan) and so we might not be able to get
any cash out. Not a problem if you have a working phone (nope) or you have plenty
of cash on you (still only about $12). Luckily the ATM coughed up some Kip and our
complete lack of preparation had paid off (there’s a lesson in there somewhere).
We got a nice taxi driver into town who spent most of the journey explaining how
expensive and dangerous the tuktuks are so we should always travel in a taxi (the
implication may have been - his taxi). The hotel isn’t as nice as the pictures of
it on the web but it’s good enough for just two nights.
The following day we whizz around the sights of Vientiane (there aren’t too many)
and end the day watching the sun set over the Mekong (the other side of the river
is Thailand).
Vientiane has a nice feeling after Cambodia. It has wider streets and fewer cars
than Phnom Penh and feels more laid back. In Sihanoukville you were constantly being
offered a tuktuk even when it was obvious you were just crossing the road to get
to the beach. Here people take a much lower-key approach.
