Laos border to Vientiane and to Vang Vieng

We had a few taxi drivers and tuktuk drivers offering the ride to Vientienne for 200-400baht. We chose a tuktuk for 200baht. Winston and Henry prefer tuktuks. They enjoyed swinging on the bar in the roof and laughing at how the shiny roof reflected their faces. They can also easily see out of the tuktuk which is not the case in a car or taxi.

It took about 20minutes, and the driver dropped us at our hotel. Champa hotel. Check in was unreasonably slow which is always annoying after a long journey. The room was nice and out door was about 3m from the pool. It cost about £31.50 per night.

The bed wasn't quite big enough, so we inflated the lilo and bulked it up with towels and Winston slept fine on it. The lilo could work out quite economical as most hotels charge about £5 per night for extra bed.

We went to the market by the river, had lunch and then went back to the hotel and had fun swimming.

The next morning, we went swimming again, and left the hotel around lunch time. We took a tuktuk to the COPE centre for 40000kip to look at an exhibition about all the unexploded ordinance left by the US as part of the Vietnam war. Winston and Henry were very interested in the bombs and afterwards they kept pointing out things on the ground that could be UXO.  We bought a T-shirt and donated a little.

It annoyed me that in the films, even the Americans who did the most to highlight the problem said 'we' as if they were somehow responsible. It was a secret Nixon CIA operation, so even voters were not really responsible. It wouldn't have been possible without fiat currency, so I wrote on the guest book 'Google Bitcoin and war'.

We went to the main temple. OK, but the most interesting thing got me was the communist style parade going on next to it with DPRK style music and MA ching civilians.

Laos, like China has followed DengShaoPings realisation that the free market makes people rich, and so the economy is growing at 7% a year. The government keeps a tight hold on media and speech so they can keep power and enjoy the increasing wealth from that position.

We bought 3 bus tickets to Vang Vieng for 45000kip each. We would be collected from our hotel at 9:30 and arrive after 3.5hours. Out hotel offered the same bus tickets for 55000kip, so for walking 20m and buying them from a hostel instead we saved 45000kip.

The tuktuk came at 9:30, and they squeezed everyone from a few different accommodations on, and took us all to the bus.  The bus was roasting, and it sat still for about 45 minutes before setting off.

We had a lunch stop ( obviously if a lunch stop was planned , then the journey was never going to take 3.5 hours), we had a stick with mashed roasted rice on it. Back on the bus, Caroline started to feel sick. She was getting a bag ready when Henry started to throw up.  We put his clothes in the bin, and Caroline managed to hold on for the rest of the journey.  It was probably mainly due to the bumby ride with not much view or fresh air.

We arived in VangVieng around 3pm, so it was a 5.5 hour journey and we took a minibus, then a tuktuk to our hotel.

The Champao Villa had nice comfy beds and an amazing view . it cost $50 per night, which is pricey for a room without a kettle or a fridge and no shower cubicle, just a wet floor. But the view is worth it.

Winston and Henry liked wearing capes and jumping from one bed to another.

The next morning after breakfast Winston was sick in the toilet. He handles it very well, with the minimum of drama.