Thread: My First Trip to Vientiene & Laos - Advice

I've been to Vientiene a few times and there isn't a great deal there.
I intend to go to Laos after songkran but this time to see Vang Vieng and
Luang Prabang where there seems to be some lovely scenery.

Laos= pleasant but boring. The nonsense you have to go thru' just to cross the border nixes it for me. I 'went' to Laos about six weeks ago- caught the bus from Ubon to Pakse. Except I didn't- the border formalities were so irritating that, having been sent to the wrong line once, I wasn't about to do the whole thing again. So stuff the bus, stuff Pakse (nuffin there anyway)- we just had a few dark Lao's in the border markets while the bus tourists finished & carried on their way, then got stamped into Laos, left immediately and caught a bus back to Ubon- and pleasantly overnighted there instead. I'm not the worlds most patient traveller.

Luang Prabang & Vang Vieng are prolly worth seeing for the patient traveller, and the islands on the Mekhong near the Cambo border seem to be on the backpackers trail now, as a stop off really before entering Cambo. An Aussie mate, experienced backpacker, did all three recently- he thought Luang was overtouristed & overhyped, liked VV, and thought the Mekhong islands were an OK chill for two nights, then boring. But not for me Bruce, like most of these 'socialist paradises' the red tape just to get in the place is enuff to make me look elsewhere- And I live near the border.

There is a very nice French restaurant in Vientianne called Cote D'Azur, other than the border stamp it was the only thing that made my visit there worthwhile.

When I was there I hired a motorbike and had a tootle about, the main market is called Talat Soon, worth a look, there are a few war museums as well that are worth a bit of a glimpse. There's a big hotel on teh river front a few minutes drive out of town that has a nightclub on an open floor where a few people had gravitated to.

Don't expect too much and you won't be dissapointed.

cheers