The culinary delights of Vientiane.

Our stay in Vientiane revolved around two themes: good food and getting lost with a moto. I think photos should do most of the talking here.

Ray's Grille is run by Daniel from the States, and he cooks amazing food for reasonable prices. The Cobb salad, Philly cheese sandwich and his quesadillas were to die for. We ate here three or four times, and the place seemed to be popular with the expat crowd happy to talk about life in Vientiane.

Scandinavian bakery has the cure to any craving you might have to proper bread with ham and cheese. But for coffee, go for the tiny shopfronts and have it Lao style with condensed milk.

Le Bonneton salon du the still had great although slightly pricy food. This time we had the goat's cheese salad (at the back) and something with duck and mushrooms (in the front). Having French food and salads in the middle of your travels, after so many noodle dishes, makes me just plain happy!

We had delicious Indian food at the restaurant at the corner of Quai Fa Ngum and Rue Nokeokoummane - I seem not to have written down the name of the restaurant. Their Shahi Paneer was absolutely the best paneer dish that I've ever had - so delicious that we accidentally ate everything (except the bones from Boyfriend's mutton dish) before realising to take a photo!

And for the best pizza in all of SE Asia, eat at Via Via. The pizzas at Good Morning Vietnam were good too, but Via Via's pizzas were amazing. So amazing that we forgot to take photos in the restaurant altogether! But if you wish, you can imagine a true Italian style pizza with thin base and cooked in a wood-fired oven, topped with quality pepperoni and real cheese.

And then for something completely different:

The national landmark, Phra That Luang, containing a relic of Buddha.

Usually my map reading skills were awesome, but this time we ended up motoing down small country lanes. This was within a few miles from downtown Vientiane!

Until eventually we came to the right road that led us to the Buddha Park.

And then it rained. It had rained whilst we were at Buddha Park, and our hotel room had flooded. Unluckily I had made space for Boyfriend's belongings by putting all of my clothes on the floor in front of the window... so we had to stay for an extra day to get all of my clothes re-washed. So we spent a day driving the moto in the rain. Never been happier about having my waterproofs with me.

We had seen a beautiful graveyard for the national heroes from the bus window and wanted to visit it. Unfortunately it turned out not to be open to tourists, so we drove 25 km in occasional heavy rain for more or less nothing. This picture is taken by sneaking to the side and reaching over the wall.

(c) all photos by Boyfriend, click to enlarge.