Vientiane - The Capital of Laos

27 - 28 January 2015

We woke up the next morning knowing that we could find a better hotel for the price, so I sent Tim out to assess the situation and he returned with reservations for a hotel on the next block.  We packed our stuff, headed over to the new hotel, dropped off our bags, and rented mountain bikes from a place across the street.  The main reason we stopped here in Vientiane is to get our Vietnam visa.  Unlike Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos that has visas on arrival, you have to apply for and receive a visa for Vietnam in advance to crossing the boarder.  So, we hopped on our mountain bikes and headed to the Vietnamese Embassy.  Although we had a map, it wasn't as easy to find as we hoped and we arrive there at 11:30 AM and was greeted by a sign that said they were closed from 11:30 - 2:30.  So...back on the bikes and off looking for a place for lunch and a way to waste the next 3 hours.

We wound up riding 20 minutes back to the area we were staying since that was the area that catered towards westerners and we knew that we would find restaurants with english menus.  We settled on a corner restaurant mostly for the view and, according to Tim, had some of the best french fries we have had in a while:

After lunch we found a nice road that followed the Mekong River so rode our bicycles north and then south along the river until we had to return to the embassy.  Here are some scenes along the Mekong River:

Gardens planted along the wall.

We left the path to return to the embassy where we filled out the form and handed over $70 US each, and was told to return tomorrow at 5:00 PM to retrieve our passports with a visa.  Wow...that was easy.  We then decided to return to the river path where we left off to continue our ride.

Beautiful Mekong Riverboat.

And like magic, the path ended right at a lovely looking local bar with 10,000 Kip ($1.25 US) bottles of Beer Lao served properly with ice:

Although we were hungry we decided to forgo eating there, but watched the locals chow down on the grilled meats.  We also noticed that every table had an order of what looked like hard-boiled eggs.  I then remembered that I read about people in this area eating eggs with partially developed duck embryos inside and determined that this is what they were eating.  After some time, a group of 3 westerners appeared and I invited them to join us.  Although all three were American, one was born in China and moved when he was 10.  I told him about the possible "duck embryo egg" sighting and he said he was familiar with this.  Next thing I know, he leaves the table and return with said mentioned egg.  I just couldn't resist making a video to share:

If you look closely you can see the head of the duck.

And of course we had to stay to see the sunset.  By the way...across the Mekong is Thailand, so here is a picture of the sunset over Thailand:

Sunset over Thailand

Since we past on the embryonic egg we headed back towards the hotel at went to a restaurant recommended by the tour book and wound up having an excellent dinner of grilled squid, sticky rice, steamed vegetables, and gaw (a weird, but tasty substance made to dip veggies and sticky rice into). Oh...and Tim ordered a "safe" roasted chicken.

Oh yeah...on the way to dinner we came across another restaurant that had a halfed Volkswagen Beetle out front that they were using as tables...check it out:

We enjoyed riding the bicycles around all day that we decided to rent the same bicycles for the next day and do a tour of the city of Vientiane.  Here are some of the highlights:

Wat Si Saket:  Vientiane's oldest temple turned national museum.  Home to thousands of Buddha figures:

Talet Sao Mall:

Patuxai: Victory Monument AKA Vientiane's Arc de Triomphe AKA The Vertical Runway because it was built with cement donated by the USA to build a new airport.

Finally, back to the Vietnamese Embassy to retreive our passports and visas:

And then we just couldn't resist not going back to that awesome local hangout before heading back to the hotel:

Tim just can't deal with a flash!

On the way back to the hotel we passes through a park that had a public yoga session going on :

After a dinner of grilled squid, pizza, and salad we called it a night and prepared for waking up early for a 4 hour bus ride to Vang Vieng at 7:30 AM.