Our only real reason for coming to Vientiane is because we couldn't get a visa for China in Chiang Mai. As they have a Chinese embassy here, it means we have to come here to try and get it. I heard there's not much to do in Vientiane, but we'll have to be stuck here for 5 days while we try and sort it. We also need to apply for our Vietnam visa here too, so we can kill two birds with one stone.

It was a 12 hour bus journey from Luang Prabang, which felt even longer as we stopped a few times. One was for an hour or so to help the bus that broke down in front of us, and other stops were for food and toilet breaks. I never realised Laos was such a mountainous country, but our journey took us through mainly mountains. I didn't feel travel sick, which was great for me. We got a seat right at the front, so I think that stopped me from feeling sick.

Catching up with our friend

When we arrived, we got dropped at a bus terminal outside of the city. I felt this was another scam, like being dropped off away from port in Luang Prabang. We had to get a tuk tuk to the city centre and they charge a 20,000 per person fee, so we were basically being ripped off. Just as we were going into our hostel, we bumped into Eric, one of our friends from the Komodo trip back in Indonesia, which was a nice surprise. We said we'd go for dinner with him after we checked in. As we were checking in, they told us they'd overbooked our private room so we'd have to stay in a dorm tonight and we could check into our room tomorrow. I was slightly annoyed, but the girl was apologetic and said it's her first few days working here.

So anyway, we went out with Eric for dinner to a nice Italian restaurant around the corner from our hostel. John wanted to watch the football as it's the last game of the season, so we went back to the hostel after dinner. They only had the Manchester United game on, so he kept checking on his phone. Manchester City won it in the end, which we probably knew would happen. We also bumped into an Irish couple who were on our boat trip on the Mekong Delta, so got chatting to them for the rest of the night. When we went to the dorm, it was full of guys listening to loud music, so I wasn't happy. When we went to bed, they did ask if we wanted to listen or if he should put headphones in. I asked if he could do that as we had to get up early in the morning. I hate dorms and won't be doing any more on this trip if we can help it!

Applying for our visa

The next morning we had to go to the Chinese embassy to do our visa. We got a tuk tuk and the driver waited outside the embassy for us. When we got a form, it was exactly the same as the one in Chiang Mai, so we just copied the forms, submitted our evidence to go with it and handed it to the cashier. We heard them questioning a French couple before us, so thought they would ask us loads of questions. But they didn't ask a thing, he just looked through our documents, told us it would take 4 days and told us where we needed to make the payment for the visa. It seemed simple enough to me, but I just hope that we do get the visa. We'll find out in a few days, so until then, we'll just have to relax. We got the tuk tuk driver to stop off at the bank to pay for the visa, and we also stopped to pick up a form at the Vietnamese embassy on route back. After that, we didn't do much else as it was so hot. It's around 38 degrees here, so you just don't want to be outside in the midday sun.

Being lazy

For the next few days, we didn't really do anything to be honest. It's just too hot to be out, so we just went out for lunch and dinner. Our hostel has a pool table, so John's been busy beating people at pool quite a lot. I don't think there are many who have beaten him on our whole trip, if any, to be honest. As we're here for 5 nights, it's given me the chance to catch up on some blogs from South America, which I still haven't finished! It's been nice to not be out sightseeing all the time too. We also have been watching a lot of Game of Thrones on the laptop too! We went to a restaurant which helps local street children, it's a bit more expensive than normal, but the foods amazing, and it goes to a good cause. It's called 'Friends n Stuff' and is just around the corner from where we're staying. I had a dragon fruit and lime freeze drink which was tasty and tried a vegetarian tofu stir dry dish. It was really good, but I do think i'll be sticking to my chicken dishes in future! We also went to another place another night, on trip advisor it's rated well, so we found it. It does the best burgers in town! I had a falafel burger which was amazing! John had a Philly steak and cheese baguette, which he loved. We have also had local Laos dishes in between too.

Going back to the embassy

So this morning, we had to return back to the Chinese embassy in the hope we'd got our visa. I was slightly nervous, but hopeful we'd got it. We hired another tuk tuk driver who would take us to the China embassy, then on to the Vietnam one too. We got our tuk tuk to wait outside while we went inside to pick up our passports. I handed in our blue slip and the lady handed me back our passports. No words were exchanged, so at this point, we didn't know if we got the visa or not. I had a look through my passport trying to see if anything was there, then I flicked the page to find I GOT THE VISA! John looked through his, and couldn't find it at first, but then he noticed he also got it too! I couldn't believe it, we've both got our visa for China.

Vietnam visa

All excited that we'd got it, we went in the tuk tuk to submit our visa for Vietnam. I can't believe it's $70 US dollars for this one, it's so expensive. We only paid $64 US dollars for both of us into China, it doesn't make any sense. So we submitted the form, and we have to wait until tomorrow evening to find out if we got that one or not. I do hope we get it, or it will be a waste of a lot of money. It was so much easier travelling through South America, we didn't need any visas, or pay for any border crossings. We have to pay for so many visas here, it's annoying.

The next day, we had to check out of our room so we had breakfast, packed our stuff and then checked out. We booked our bus to Siem Reap for later this evening, let's hope we get our passports back on time. John played pool, while I just read a book. We stayed in the hostel until lunchtime. Then went back to our favourite Italian restaurant and had a lush pizza.

After that we had to go to the embassy to try and collect our visa and passports. They said it would be ready at 5pm, but I guess we were hoping it would be ready earlier. We decided to walk there in the scorching heat to save money on a tuk tuk as they are quite expensive. That was hard work in itself, we had to keep stopping for a shade break. On the way, we passed the victory arch. It's based on the design of the Arc de Triomphe. It's one of the most iconic landmarks here in Vientiane, so it was good to see it. Specially considering that we haven't even ventured out and about to see the temples around here. It was built as a memorial for those who fought for independence from France.

As we got nearer the embassy the rain clouds came over, which was a good thing to see because it meant the heat of the sun wasn't so intense. We got to the embassy an hour and a half early. We asked them if the visa was ready and they said no, come back at 5pm. So we had to just wait around there. We couldn't be bothered to venture outside again, so just waited at the embassy. More and more people started turning up, but they had to wait too. We stayed there patiently, and after 5pm the passports were ready to collect. They handed them back to us, so I looked inside to find there was a Vietnam visa inside our passport. I was really pleased! We hastily left to grab a bite to eat before catching our bus to Pakse.