Woke up yesterday morning in or French colonial hotel to rain. It was so peaceful laying in bed listening to the rain fall and hearing the creaking of the old wooden floors. Breakfast was delicious including CK's yogurt, banana and honey smoothie. We decided to check out of the old hotel and into the new first thing and then hired a few beater bikes to cruise around town. Unfortunately, the Hello Kitty bike I had at first needed repairs... I've always wanted a Hello Kitty bike! After a few hours seeing the sites (wats, stupas, old buildings and monks in saffron robes) we thought we'd spend the rest of the day relaxing at the Settha Palace Hotel pool. Why not we thought, we've got all day tomorrow to rent a motorbike and see the rest of the lazy little capital. Here is where the disaster started to develop.
The pool was perfect... blue, relaxing, and with a banana daquiri life was good! We finished the evening with an amazing three course French meal at Le Central. More storms after dinner knocked out our internet but we were happy to fall into bed feeling full from dinner and warm from the day full of sun. CK fell asleep the visions of our upcoming scooter day in his mind. Which is likely what saved us...
He had been mailing guesthouses in Siem Reap to arrange accommodation starting on the 2nd. However, we had somehow lost track of time and thought we had an extra day in Vientiane! So CK woke up this morning at 4:30 excited about renting the scooter only to realise our mistake. We dashed around the room, half dressed with toothbrushes hanging out of our mouths stuffing clothes into our bags! I had to wake the overnight staff to check out and we jumped in the back of the slowest tuk tuk yet. We made it to the airport with about an hour to spare. Feeling relieved we headed into the terminal only to have our path blocked by a security guard with no English language saying " no, you go other" and pointing at nothing. Sudden heart dropping fear set in again as we knew the next flight wouldn't be until the 4th... one more day in Vientiane would be ok but not two... as we reasoned unsuccessfully with the guard we saw a rather gloomy building to the right of the international terminal and realised the guard was saying domestic. We headed over and were able to check in with time to spare! The intrepid travellers averted disaster and are currently en route to country number 3, city number 5 and guest house number 6!
Sad to leave Laos and hopeful I can return again to explore more of this enchanting country.
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