Vientiane

After Vang Vieng it was quite nice to spend a few days exploring Vientiane.  It didn't really feel like a capital city more like a big town as it didn't have any high rise buildings but its actually quite big.  I wandered around the main monuments and markets which were crazily hot! The city has some strange old French monuments and one which is a Laos version of the Arch de triumph very bizarre!  The second day I hired a moped and headed out to the 'buddah park' which is a very strange park that is full of random statues of Buddahs and hindu gods comissioned by a guy in the 70's, the most random of all is a massive concrete pumpkin like ball that is hollow with 3 levels in the middle full of strange statues that you can climb, very odd!  


That evening I got on a sleeper bus down to Pakse.  The bus was a bit different to the last one I took in China as it had double beds so I had to share with another girl which wasn't too bad but I coudn't lie flat so it was a bit cramped for the 12 hour journey! I was just glad I wasn't downstairs at the back as that was very cramped and very hot!