Vientiane (Vientiene)

Member Name: sun-is-shining

Product:	Vientiene
Date:	26/05/09 (5 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Buddha park, beerLao factory, riverfront restaurant

Disadvantages: accommodation is the worst in the whole country

Vientiane is the capital of Laos and situated on the border with Thailand. Use the border crossing Nong Khai/Vientiane via the Friendship bridge.
You can get a Visa on Arrival for 30 days, it should cost you about 32 US $ each - take 15 min to proceed. Look that you have some bath left you have to pay 10bath stamp-fee.
Although it is the capital it has the feeling of a small river town. Well, it is a river town and the Mekong is my favourite place.

All roads in Laos eventually lead to Vientiane and if you travel north to south or vice versa you have to stop there. Connections include a 12 hour bus ride to Pakse in the south (if you want to Cambodia) and a 10 to 12 hour bus ride to Luang Prabang in the northern centre of the country. From there you can go on to the Vietnamese border.

Looking for a room in Vientiane is a nightmare. There is one dormitory for 20000 a night at the Sabaidee Guesthouse (on the main road) but the cheapest privet rooms in the city start from 50000 - and they are really basic and of course hard to find.
There is not really a lot to do in Vientiane itself, a few monasteries, the national museum and, for me the best point, is sitting at the riverfront and enjoying the sun. There are many restaurants overlooking the river and the food is considerably good. My favourite is the sweet yellow curry.
Buy enough mosquito repellent - they'll eat you alive if not.

Two things outside the city are well worth the TukTuk ride:

We spend our last day visiting the Buddha Park just outside of the city. Honestly, I didn't expect much, we all thought it would be quite tacky and full of tourists. What a pleasant surprise, it was quite the opposite! The setting is great, everything is green, it's by Mekong and the day was lovely warm and sunny.
The park is filled with over 200 statues, some small others huge like the 40m long reclining Buddha and a big circular building at the park entrance. We climbed to the top and the view over the park is really breathtaking!
The best is that there were no tourists at all, only some picnicking locals and lots of monks in saffron robes. They were so nice, eager to practice their English and hear stories about Europe.

On the way back we stopped at the BeerLao Brewery - heaven! Well, quite similar to heaven, especially with the gates closed. It was a Sunday, no guided tours. Even 30min begging, bribing and whining didn't bring us any closer. Thank god we had a great TukTuk driver who helped us in - only for 5min to take some photos but better than nothing. I love BeerLao!

Summary: ok for a few days - there are better places in Laos