Vientiane

We had been told that Laos was really chill, so we were surprised when we arrived in Vientiane and found it full of people, loud music blaring from every corner, and vendors selling anything you can imagine.

Tuk Tuk driver

It turns out that we had arrived smack in the middle of the boat festival, which they hold every year to show their appreciation to the Mekong River, which helps sustain them so much. While we were looking forward to an opportunity to chill out after our long bus ride, it made for a much better experience. We were able to see a kick boxing fight, eat delicious street food, and see some boat races.

Boat Festival Crowd

Putaxai, aka Victory Gate a rendition of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Its a good thing the boat fest was going on because there isn't much to do in the capital city. We visited plenty of temples,and the Laos National Museum. After a few days we decided to head up to Vang Vieng, very happy with our decision to include Laos in our travels.

Presidential Palace

On the move for 24 hours

From Cat Ba to Laos proved to be quite the ordeal. First, we took a van back to the harbor, where we sailed for about 2 hours until we made it back to the mainland.

We had lunch, then hopped on a bus which took us to Hanoi. Once there, we were ushered into a travel agent's office where we waited 10 minutes, until we were told we needed to walk a few blocks to meet our taxi (keep in mind that we were hauling all of our belongings, and it was rush hour).

Our taxi finally arrived and after some confusion, dropped us off at the bus station. Zoe and I were exhausted and our journey had only truly begun. Our bus left Hanoi around 7pm, and we made it to the Laos border around 5:30am. Immigration didn't start processing until 7, so we waited around slept.

When the office did open it was a slow, but steady process. I'd heard horror stories of 3 hour processing times, but it took 1.5 hours tops, to exit Vietnam, secure our visas for Laos, and be on our way.

We left the border, hopped back on the bus, and arrived in Vientiane around 5pm, a full 32 hours after we departed Cat Ba!