The Disappointment of Savannakhet and Vientiane

Arrived in Savannakhet late and got a tuk tuk to a guesthouse. Didn't like it so walked on to another. Didn't like that one either but took it as there wasn't much else about.

Went for dinner at a weird little diner place. My chicken burger was very odd but tasty. Went to sleep and woke up early to hire bicycles from the guesthouse for the day.

Rode to a nice cafe for a posh tuna sandwich and coffee they headed for the Dinosaur museum. Digs in Savannakhet unearthed many big dinosaurs apparently and we may have found out more had the place been open. We asked some tuk tuk drivers what time it was likely to open and they told us that the staff were more than likely having their lunch and would open in three hours time. So lunch at 11am until 2pm? Seems a bit long.

Decided to sack off the museum and rode out of town along the river. On the other side of the river was Thailand which was kind of cool.

We found a guesthouse out of town and inquired with the owner about how much a night was. 130000 kip was much more than we had been paying but it was gorgeous. It was a whole house with three bedrooms, kitchen, massive balcony on the river and two cute pet dogs who we called Goldie and Guinness so, with the chance to do some home cooking for the first time in ages, we splashed out.
Returned the bikes at about 1pm and sneaked out of our first guesthouse in case the guy wanted us to pay for another day. Hopped in a tuk tuk and drove to our new place of residence.

Later that evening the owner came in and told us not to lock the front door at night. We asked why and he told us that someone might visit in the night but don't worry, they won't stay long. Rather confused we asked who would be coming and he said maybe a man with a girl. Sussed out what this meant and were really pissed off. The place was basically being used as a 'rest stop' for truckers and their 'girlfriends'. Had we known this we wouldn't have bothered.

We didn't get any visitors in the night so we decided to stay one more night and no visitors came on the second night either. It did feel a bit weird though as we half expected to be woken up by creaking beds and banging headboards.

The next day we departed Savannakhet and made the five hour bus journey to the capital, Vientiane.

Savannakhet was pretty average really. A big sprawling city with not much to do. The knocking shop guesthouse was mildly amusing but we'd rather have stayed in a conventional place.

We arrived in Vientiane expecting the buzz of a capital city and instead got a drab hum of a provincial town. Found a guesthouse and haggled a bit for a better price. Made sure it had a tv so I could stay up ridiculously late to watch England lose on penalties to Italy.

The next day we wandered around town but found pretty much nothing to do. Went to a horrible mall to buy a memory card for my camera and that's about as exciting as it got. I'm sure there is more to do in Vientiane, just couldn't really find it. There are lots of these huge buildings at the intersections of the main roads that look like they have been made of lego or fell out of an Ikea catalogue. Strange really.

The river front was ugly and boring, the city was big and empty, there just wasn't any point in being there really except... a great Indian restaurant that did very good food. We ate there for breakfast and dinner.

Had some beers in a cute little garden bar and saw a big frog that was catching bugs with its hands. Weird.

Went back to hotel and had to laugh as a seedy looking guy walked in with a young girl. Another knocking shop it seems! Really not what I had expected from a country with such conservative culture. Followed the odd couple upstairs before locking ourselves in our room hoping to avoid any unsavoury sounds from the other rooms. Wifi didn't work either. Crap 'guesthouse' in a disappointing city.

The description on Vientiane in the Lonely Planet ends with the sentence "Capital cities aren't supposed to be this friendly". I'd like to change this to "capital cities aren't supposed to be this average".

We used both Savannakhet and Vientiane as breakpoints in our long journey north. Things in Laos move very very slowly, especially transport so staying in the two places was pretty much necessary. Wouldn't recommend either place really. Kind of uninteresting. I'm sure others would argue that this review is harsh, and certainly this blog entry has been edited several times due to some comments. The truth is that I simply didn't like Vientiane and Savannakhet was limited in what it had to offer. We are all entitled to our opinions so if you are reading this and feel like leaving a damning comment, just think about a place you have been that you didn't like, or had bad experiences in, and then understand that others may hold that very same place close to their hearts. As I say, we are all entitled to our opinion.

Next up Vang Vieng, tubing, tuna sandwiches and Family Guy.