Day 38 Monday 9 October Vientiane

Pouring heavily all night, so much for the festival to mark the end of the rainy season, so much so that most of the roads in Vientiane were flooded. Made our way down the dirt road which passes as the main thoroughfare to a very pleasant little cafe serving great coffee and European breakfast, with wireless internet which helped us while away the morning and most of the afternoon until the weather improved.

Ventured out to explore a couple of wats or temples, these were quite impressive, less spectacular but more of a human scale than those of Thailand. One had beautiful cloisters around the central ‘sim’, enclosing a tranquil courtyard, whilst the second was bustling with activity and had a strobe type light or Mandela behind the alter which would not have been out of place in a leagues club pokkie hall. Very strange bird out side, we thought initially it was part of the decoration, scruffy thing but about a metre high with dark wings, enormous beak and very long legs. A sort of stork I guess.

Dinner at a very European restaurant, great seafood soufflé and filet mignon but average crème brulee washed down with a bottle of burgundy, for less than $15/head. Margaritas were superb – in the interests of health and science have decided to switch the Creme brulee quest to instead finding the best margaritas in Asia. At $1-2 each we are pursuing it with appropriate scientific rigour and dedication.

Weather 28 raining
Distance today 21km
Total Distance 8201km