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Vientiane, set along the meandering Mekong River, is the very laid back peaceful capital city of Laos.

VIENTIANE, LAOS

Dave
2004-02-22 13:53:23

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Vientiane, set along the meandering Mekong River, is the very laid back peaceful capital city of Laos. This city is in stark contrast to the chaotic bustling streets of Bangkok! Vientiane is small enough that its not an overwhelming city (population 135,000) and you can find your way around quite easily. If you do get lost, there is usually a Tuk-tuk eagerly waiting to whisk you away to your destination.

Vientiane is a clean comfortable city with seemingly several Internet cafes on every block. In that regard, this is a well connected city. There are many amenities setup for tourists here - nice guesthouses, cheap lodging, good restaurants and several sites worth seeing. This is also a fairly safe city.

Two days in this capital city is generally considered enough time to see the main highlights

I mention Internet cafes in this section because this is an activity in and of its self. Rarely have I been in a town with so many Internet cafes!! In the center of town and along Thanon Fa Ngum which is the closest main road paralleling the Mekong River there are several Internet cafes along every block. As you move away from the Mekong River there won't be quite as many, but you still won't have trouble finding a cafe. Most of these cafes are on high speed connections and for the most part the cafes have modern computers. You will even find several CD burners in town at the Internet cafes - and many of computers have USB connections. You may have to visit several cafes before you do find a burner, as not everyone has these.

Microtek Computer Shop is a good source of any computer components you might need (most of the Tuk-tuk drivers will have heard of this shop). Microtek will burn a CD for you but their price is much higher than you will find at some of the Internet cafes.

It is quite expensive to call out of the country using one of the countries ...