Took a local bus from Savannakhet to Vientiane. Took just on 9 hours and cost 55000kip each. Impressive to see just how many people you can fit on a bus. All the seats were full, there was a row of plastic seats up the aisle, 7 people standing up front, an axel sitting on the floor next to me, 2 20kg sacks of rice in the stairwell and a motorbike on the roof. Nice! They're not so big on rest breaks here in Laos. In Cambodia you could count on there being one at least every 2 hours or so. On this trip we had one after 45 minutes and that was pretty much it. Oh, someone came on board at one stage and sold strange cakes (that were pretty tasty) and even weirder fruit (didn't try those), and about 2 hours before the end someone yelled out 'toilet break' in Lao - whereby the bus stopped and everyone piled out to take a slash in the jungle. It's all part of the experience :)

We ended up at the Southern Bus Station (which isn't even mentioned in the Lonely Planet, so it has turned up some time over the past 2 years) . It's 9km north of town (Southern because that's where the buses go, not because it's in the south), and we maaged to pick up a jumbo / tuk tuk into town for 30000kip, which we thought was expensive, but then all the locals on board paid 15000 each, so I guess it was ok.

First impressions of Vientiane were pretty positive. We'd heard from 3 or 4 people that they hadn't liked the city, that the outskirts were ok, but that was about it. I guess sometimes it pays to have low expectations :) Aside from getting ripped off at the Hong Kong restaurant (I was really craving Dim Sum and Hong Kong style Sweet & Sour Pork), we've only had good experiences here.

The first night we'd come in so late that we had to wander around for a while to find somewhere to stay. Fortunately, the friendly folks at our first choice (Mali Nam Phu Guesthouse, which was full), looked after our backpacks for us while we were out searching. We ended up at Soukchaleun Guesthouse, just opposite Wat Mixay with a great fan room for US$10 (warm water, tv, fridge) . It was a little noisy with traffic in the morning, but really clean and very friendly staff.

Since then we've moved a little upmarket - to Riverside Hotel for US$15 a night with a/c, hot water, TV & fridge. Little expensive, but it's nice to have hotel luxury when you're in a big city :)

Spent our first day here doing Lonely Planet's walking tour of the city (more or less). Tuk tuk to Patuxai went for 20000kip - although they try for 30000kip for pretty much anything around town for the two of us. Patuxai has been called Laos' answer to Arc d'triumph and it's easy to see why. Definitely must be styled after Paris' famous landmark, it even sits at the top of a long avenue (Avenue Lane Xang), very reminiscent of Champs Eysees in Paris.

The presidents palace here was fairly unexpected. It's a squarish greay & white building, not at all as ostentatious or garish as I'd expected for an asian communist state. Quite tasteful actually.

Vientiane itself feels something like a mini Bangkok. There is a lot of the same type of traffic, but it feels like a modern city. The pavements are attrocious, something of a talking point around here, but the roads are well kept and they are definitely working on the pavements - we've seen them.

There are lots of little arty handcraft shops, full of stuff that you don't want, lots of little french influenced cafes, lots of tables down by the riverside for taking in a mosquito filled sunset over a quiet Beer Lao . Nice really.

We finished up the day at a little French restaurant - Le Vendome - where Kristina could satisfy her craving for red meat. Really great food and a bottle of wine (the first since Phnom Penh), it was the perfect way to end a great day.

Yesterday we had a big day of pampering for body and soul. We started off by taking a local bus out to Buddha Park. Bus #14 from the bus station behind Talat Sao (the morning market), from stand #1 (furthest from the market), runs every 20 minutes, costs 4000kip each. Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan) is a small statue park about 25km from city centre. It started with a bunch of smaller statues, but now there is even a 35m reclining buddha. Quite a different experience from the usual temple based Buddha statues that we'ev seen elsewhere.

From there we caught the same bus back and jumped off just outside the Cambodian Embassy. Not because we needed anything there, but because the bus driver could understand Kampuchea Ambassad, knew where it was and the road right next to it leads to Wat Sok Pa Luang, which was our real destination.

Wat Sok Pa Luang is a great living temple, on the outskirts of the city. It is a real jungle type temple, with plenty of nature growing inside the temple grounds. It had two big draw cards though - you can get a Herbal Sauna & Massage there (between 1pm and 7pm), and on Saturday afternoons (from 4pm) they run a free 1 1/2 hour intro to meditation . Great way to spend a Saturday afternoon :)

We arrived just after 1 and strolled around the temple for a while being confused by the signs promising 'Traditional Steam & Massage ->'. After chatting with some of the monks, we finally found the place and discovered that the very first sign was pointing at the little path right next to it, not at the main entrance to the temple. In any case, the herbal sauna was great, and the massage was just what the doctor ordered after 4 hard weeks on the road :) and for 80000kip for the both of us (about US$8) it was hardly going to break the bank :)

We finished up there just in time to head over to the main temple area for our meditation session. I've done an intro to meditation in NZ, but there is definitely something special about sitting in a Buddist temple in Laos, meditating with Buddhist monks. Very cool really.

We grabbed a tuk tuk back to town (30000kip, standard price), and headed off to a local restaurant (Nang Khan Bang) for dinner. Chicken Laab salad, grilled quail and stuffed, grilled frogs - yummo!

This morning we hit the final 'must see' attraction. The national temple Pha That Luang with it's golden roof. We walked there and arrived just as a whole bunch of school kids were lining up to welcome someone. We never did find out who they were, but they were greeted by 5 or 6 monks from the temple and all walked around the first level of the temple 3 times before disappearing off again. One of the many unexplained mysteries of asia!

Today being Christmas Eve, and us being Swedes :) we had to have christmas dinner. That turned out to be a picnic with vietnamese spring rolls, baguettes stuffed full of different sorts of meat, pate and masses of fresh salad and a bottle of french savingnon blanc. Ahhh... christmas.

Back to our little french restaurant for fondue and pate for dinner. Ahhh... it's a hard life :)

We're leaving Vientiane tomorrow morning, not without some regrets. It's a lovely little city, set in the middle of a lovely little country. Still, there is more to see, so we're off on a VIP bus (US$6 each) to Vang Vieng in the morning.