Vientiene and The Stolen Camera

Vientiene was surprisingly pretty. It hugs the Mekong River where it forms a boarder with Thailand and sweeps generously in every direction for miles. It isn't a tall city but it is certainly big. We found a nice place to stay pretty quickly but found that the capital was a lot more expensive than the rest of Laos. We were spending a few dollars more each for a room that wasn't as nice as others we'd stayed in. Dissapointed with that we tried to find a cheap dinner but got distracted with some okonomiyaki (Japanese "pizza"). Yum!

We ate with Emily, who we met on the slow boat from Thailand and had spent almost a week with at this point. We also met a guy from Atlanta called Zach who was doing a bit of traveling alone. He was an interesting guy who lived in South Africa working with poverty-stricken communities doing aid work. He was knowledgeable about Cambodia too since he'd just come from there, so we picked his brain a bit while we ate.

The few days we spent in the capital we're pretty boring but in a good way. We saw their Arch and a few other sights and watched the sun set over the Mekong. We hired bikes one day and road almost 15km one way to the bus station to buy tickets only to find that we could only purchase them 30 minutes before departure! Oops!

The most eventful thing that happened was that my camera was stolen. Boo to that. I lost all my pictures because I was too lazy to upload them and not smart enough to change the memory card. So... no pictures to come anytime soon. SORRY!

I filed a claim with my insurance after meeting with the tourist police, who were helpful but apathetic. Now I just have to wait.

We also got our Veitnam visas in order... Jan. 15th-Feb. 15th!

On Christmas day we took a local bus to Savanaket in the south, bypassing a giant cave we thought about doing. In the end I'd say we didn't miss much except a few days of being dirty and a few dollars poorer.

Savanaket isn't worth a stop unless you really need some quiet time. There is some trekking to do but we spent our 2 days there biking and walking around, doing laundry, and relaxing. We needed it!

Then it was on to the 4000 Islands!