Monday, January 28th, 2013 Vientiane the capital city of Laos.

Our overnight bus was a VIP bus,  like the last VIP bus we had in Thailand.  We survived our bus trip and were happy to arrive in Vientiane on Monday, January 28th, the capital city of Laos.  Vientiane is not a very vibrant city.  It is described as a sleepy, riverside capital with a handful of temples and an armful of good restaurants, cafes and bars.  Here, we waited for our connection, i.e., small truck picking up several others who were going in our direction, and taking us to the bus station to go to our destination Ban Kong Lo from which we would visit the  Tham Kong Lo cave.  The bus ride to Ban Kong Lo was six hours long as we meandered along to our destination stopping at many villages.

We arrived at Ban Kong Lo in the late afternoon and checked into a Guest House.  The Guest House was 60,000 Kip a night ($7.50).  Yes, it did have a toilet and hot water and a beautiful view outside of the shuttered windows.  We then went for a walk with a couple of fellow travellers we had met on the bus. Afterwards, we enjoyed a lovely dinner at one of the local restaurants in the village.