We hadn't heard anything really positive about Vientiane other than it was just a city that happened to be the capital of Laos. We needed to go there anyway though becasue it was on our way to our next destination and we needed visa's for Vietnam.
We arrived in Vientiane around 2pm on a Friday and quickly found a hotel and dropped our bags in the room and then started walking towards the Vietnamese embassy. Along the way I found an ATM to get some cash to pay for the visas. When we finally got to the embassy (2.5km, 1.5 miles ) we were the only ones there and it was close to 3:30pm. There was a big sign saying "We only accept USD" which we didn't have as ATM's give out money in LAK (Laos Kip). Another sign also said that the embassy closed at 4pm and would not reopen for 3 days. I told the guy at the counter that we didn't have any USD and he offered to accept LAK but at a rate that meant we would be overpaying by roughly $13 for our visa's, something I wasn't willing to do.
We quickly made a plan, Janelle would fill out the paperwork and I would go and find some USD. I knew that the only exchange place from the way we had come was over 1 KM (.62 miles) back so I went the other way but there was nothing. After 5 minutes of heading in the wrong direction, I decided I would have to sprint to get the money exchanged and then sprint back with the USD to get the Visa's and all in less than 25 minutes. I set out in the ridiculously sunny and hot day running in my unsuitable running gear. People on the street stared at me much like I would stare at anyone else running in the heat of the day in street clothes.
I made it to the bank where there were 7 tellers per counter. I went up to the first free counter and explained that I wanted to exchange LAK for USD. I had just taken USD out of my bank account at the ATM that only gives me money in LAK to then exchange it back to USD, so riduclious. I sat there staring impatiently at my watch as the 7 tellers casually took their time to change the money for me. As soon as I had it, I quickly thanked them and sprinted out of the door. I'm sure to any bystandard I looked like I had just robbed the bank, sprinting out in a great panic with sweat streaming out of every pore. I made it back to the embassay with two minutes to spare and we were able to get our Vietnam Visa's. If I have been 2 minutes later we would have had to spend the whole weekend in Vientiane to try again on Monday morning.
After that we walked around some of the tourist sites and got an amazing pineapple shake. It was so good I couldn't resist having a second.
We went to a night market that was catered to locals with little kids painting ceramic characters from angry birds.
Tomorrow we head off the tourist track to rural Laos. Check out the rest of today's pictures by looking at the slideshow below:
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