We had a slow morning and just walked around the town checking out what was happening. We saw the tour company that we had asked the hotel about right across the street and not far away like we had been told. They had a good variety of tours available (Soupath travel) that also including weaving villages. While we did go to a Thai Dam village, near Moun Khoua , and saw 4 women weaving it was not the tribal clothing but modern skirts. We ate lunch at the Craters Restaurant which David chose for the decor featuring large unexploded bombs. We had thought of going to Mulberries to see the silk production, dying and weaving center, but as only one of us is really keen on this we decided to give it a miss.
At 1 pm we headed for the airport for a 2:30pm flight to Vientiane. The check in process was slow and required going to an immigration office to record our presence in the area even though we were not leaving the country. The plane was a prop plane with seating for about 50 and all seats were taken for the 30 minute flight. From the Vientiane airport we took a taxi to our hotel, the Inter City Boutique hotel, which we had paid for four nights in advance using Agoda. When the cab stopped outside I asked him twice is this the "Inter City Boutique hotel?", are you sure this is the "Inter City Boutique hotel?". Not too fancy, but about $46 per night with breakfast. Vientiane is the first sizable city we have been to in Laos.
Well we have a Karen drum in our room, and a lot of interesting antiquities, including 2 large spider webs on the ceiling that did not just come overnight. We are now in the large "deluxe" room over looking the Mekong river with lovely antiques, but music is BLASTING from speakers in the median outside our window, and an announcer trying to sell some Kia cars that are displayed. Now I have read the trip advisor reviews about the noisy night club next door, the night market just out front.....when we arrived David had to carry our luggage up 2 flights of steep stairs as the elevator is "broken"..... We will see how soon it is fixed. If I had seen pictures of the outside of this hotel I would never had picked to stay here, but after walking around the river side and main tourist restaurant street, this building does not look terribly worse than the others. So far the Internet is excellent, which is a major plus, but also because we are directly across the Mekong River that here marks the border with Thailand, our Blackberry is receiving emails off a Thai provider. The music blasted until 10 pm and then it got quiet enough to sleep.
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