(not) Bowled over by Vientiane

With a little luck and some extremely skillful paddling, we finally made it to Vientiane, safe from the law...for now...

After setting up base by the river, we decided to explore the city with a little sight seeing:

Here we have Laos' answer to the Arc de Triomphe. Only it's smaller. And not finished.

 

 View from on top

Cultural Hall

Presidential Palace

Hooray!

After we had exhausted the numerous tourist attractions Vientiane had to offer, which included a bizarre bazaar (arf), we sought out the city's fabulously retro bowling alley:

Matt won, but I nearly got a strike once!

Then we had a few games of pool in the adjoining snooker hall. Full of smoking unemployed people, just like Rileys!

Despite our regret at leaving behind Vientiane's fantastic food and bowling thrills, we headed off on the sleeper bus for what was to be our first visit to Pakse. It was no King of Bus, but the sleeper bus was very exciting.

 

And we both had a good nights sleep.

We transferred to a bus at Pakse that was to take us off to Don Det in Four Thousand Islands.