Vientiane

Hello, here's some photos from our stay in Vientiane. Although most travellers seem to think it's a boring place, we spent a good few days there and probably could have spent longer. There are plenty of lovely shops and restaurants in town (many of them French..) and some great places to sit by the Mekong and enjoy a Beer Lao. La Cave Des Chateaux was the best French restaurant we tried: You can't argue with a perfectly-cooked steak for just $10! I took a photo of the sign because the gecko looks so out of place.


While walking to the markets, we came across this sign, apparently sponsored by the Australian Government. It's pretty cute!


Here's me having a whale of a time at the brand-new water park. I think I posted something earlier about our trip to this place - Pete ended up bruising his rib cartilage when he started going too fast and fell. We were having a great time up until about then. After the rib incident we mostly floated around in the kiddies pool.


Again, here's me having fun while Pete was nursing his sore ribs. He was miserable for a few days after that and even now he's still a tiny bit sore.


Although it was only hours after the rib incident, Pete perked up for dinner with my mate Rosco, who works for Pan Australian in Laos. We went for dinner at La Cave Des Chateaux and then headed up to one of the many bars in town where ex-pats go for a drink (or maybe even to find a Lao girlfriend). It was on the fifth floor of a building right next to the Mekong, so the views were impressive. Although I remembered too late to make a can of 'harden-up', I did do my best to shoosh Rosco (these jokes will only be remembered by a few who were at George Fisher around 2002-2003!)


Patouxai, Vientiane's Arc de Triomphe is pictured below. Apparently it was built with cement donated for construction of the new airport, so some ex-pats have nicknamed it 'the vertical runway'. It's lovely from a distance, and ghastly up close!


And just in case you don't believe me, here's the sign that proclaims that fact:


The view from the top is impressive however, and from the photo you can probably deduce that Vientiane is not much of a city, and more like a big town. I don't think there are any buildings in Laos that are more than about five stories, which makes for a laid-back and relaxing place.


Finally, just for fun here's a photo of Pete's lunch while we were on our way south to Savannakhet. He bought some boiled eggs as part of his lunch and got a bonus with his purchase! The man with guts of steel couldn't quite bring himself to eat a baby chicken so the dogs did very well for themselves that day.


That's it for now, I'll post again if I have time today. Pete's doing his CV so I may have some time up my sleeve. Mine's already done but it's too scary to send it off - because then reality really will kick in! We only have about ten weeks left until we return to Australia, which is not a very long time at all!