Vientiane

As you are reading we can tell you that we survived our flight with Laos airlines! In the Lonely Planet it says that 'Laos airlines do not release their safety records'! Hmmm I wonder why. Apparently they're fine now though. We got on a 60 seater twin propeller plane which made a stopover!

We got off in Savannakhet in southern Laos which was where we'd be getting our visas. Now we'd heard about overcharging at borders but thought they wouldn't do at an airport, surely?! They did. 1 guy wanted 1 dollar to pass our passports to the next desk. We also thought $35 was a bit steep for the visa! All they do is stick a sticker in your passport! Now if I wanted a sticker after being ripped off I'd rather go to the dentist, at least you get something in return! If I thought the money would goto towards education, health care and transport links then fine buy unfortunately I doubt it does.

The flights were great though, we weren't travelling that high so we could see more.

We found a ridiculously cheap hostel for £3.20. It was a complete dive but we thought we'd give it a go! We ended our day with a 3 litre pitcher of Beer Lao for 3gbp! See photos!

As we were packing in the morning we found our snacks had been eaten by what looked like a mouse. We did find a dropping under our pillow when we arrived so our fears were confirmed! We left for Vang Vieng as we are on a tight schedule as there wasn't much happening in Vientiane.