Another Bussing Challenge

Given the options of 2 flights over about 5 hours for $130, or a 26 hour bus ride for $25, the choice was easy – definitely fly! BUT, when we were told that the 26 hours included a 10-hour stop at a hotel, everything changed and we bought our bus tickets.

However, there was no hotel stop. We were on the bus from 1:30pm until 1:00am, at which time we alighted the Hanoi-bound bus we had been travelling on, and we waited for the Vientiane bus, ticketless (ours were taken from us on the first bus), to collect us at a roadhouse type restaurant until 3am when we were picked up (thankfully, despite our empty pockets!) and taken to the Laos border, arriving at 5am… however the border does not open until 7am, so we waited there for another 2 hours. Then, when we crossed the border (which I might add, must surely be the most relaxed customs unit that exists in this world!), we had about another ¾ hour to wait before we could all climb back onto the bus, now headed for Vientiane. We had only driven far enough to decide that we already liked Laos and its jungle and rivers and rough cliffs and pretty farmlands, before we made an 8:30 breakfast stop. Following breakfast, we carried on in our bus, without air conditioning or windows that opened, and we did not stop again at a restaurant or toilet (bar one side-of-the-road toilet stop!) until we reached our destination at 5pm!!!

And to make things worse, our photos are no longer uploading, as the iWeb is experiencing an "unknown error" with each attempt at publishing! So we have to find a new photo page to send photos to...! Arrrrgh!
...so SEE PHOTOS AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Bus%20to%20Laos/?start=all

Anyway, in Vientiane, 7 of us shared a jumbo (a big tuk tuk) into town, and after much walking and asking in vain, found ourselves some digs, and then with almost as much difficulty we found ourselves a meal. Then we introduced ourselves(!) and we learnt that we were with Steve from New Zealand, who disappeared never to return before our meals had been ordered; Mariana from Argentina; Julia from Austria; and Henrik and Sofia from Sweden.

It turns out that with no tuk tuk drivers competing for our business or trying to take us to their own guesthouse or a restaurant that pays them commission, no pressured selling in the street, very few people (and little traffic) in the streets, no real centre of town, and no openly accessible tourist information, Vientiane is certainly the least intrusive, relaxed and quiet town, let alone city, let alone capital city, that either of us have ever visited!