I woke up about 6.30 so I expected us to arrive soon but we were still a bit out so I looked at the wikitravel page I'd saved offline and found out about the buses to take if we stop at the bus station. We arrived about 7.30 and it was the bus station so I went looking for buses 29, 23 or even 8 but there were no numbers in our writing on most of them. I gave up and decided to catch it on the road as a bus map showed me they were the only 2 going that way. I walked round the corner which was a bit further than it looked and waited and a lot of people got into tuk tuks or songsaws and went off. A tuk tuk driver started talking to me and I said I was waiting for the bus but he offered to take me for 5k so I accepted. We drove to the central bus station and then he drove me close to the hostel so I paid him 10k and walked. The hostel couldn't check me in until 11.30 but I got to check my messages and then head out. I went to the temple next door and then past the presedential palace but I was headed to the Vietnam embassy so I missed other temples. The main road took me past a "supermarket" but as you can guess it wasn't very super. I bought a 1.5 litre bottle of water and carried on and the road came to the triumphal arch which I quite like. They built it with concrete the American's gave them for an airport runway and it's on a traffic island with roads branching off, bit of French design there. I had a look round briefly and made my way to the embassy where I found out that a visa would cost 45, 50 or 60 dollars depending on how quickly I wanted it. I wasn't planning on staying here for 4 days and the price made the flight I'd seen much more attractive so I left and picked up a rice on a stick for 2k before getting to That lung, the golden stupa and temple. The temple was nicely painted inside and there were a few other large buildings around which were closed. The stupa itself looked ok but had scaffolding and they charge 10k to enter the "museum" but I decided not to go. I left and went north and bought a papaya on the way as it was nearing lunch time. I got to the peoples army museum but it was closed for lunch however I did have a look at the equipment in the entrance area like a bi-plane they used in the 70's. I left and got to the museum of security which was also shut for lunch and also had vehicles in front but these were police car, fire engine etc. Next was a memorial to a president which was shut because it was a Monday although it also closes for lunch normally. It had been a badly planned day but thats what can happen when you have worries like a visa to sort out. I started peeling the papaya outside a restaurant and a man there kindly lent me a knife which helped as I cut it in half, then I walked south to the revolution monument and a pond with nice modern monuments but not much water. I went back along the road I'd been on earlier and got a rice patty and some balls for 5k total. I'd eaten quite a lot of food so my body wanted to go into food coma but I wouldn't let it and I got back to the arch and paid the 3k to climb up. I took several pictures before I realised it wasn't the top and climbed up more. The place has 7 levels in total and good views although there wasn't that much to see with the presedential palace quite far away in a haze. I left and walked back and visited a tourist information place where I picked up some brochures and they said the mall nearby had food although his English was not good so I went to the mall and there was no supermarket there it was mainly clothes and shoes. I went to an old temple next to it which was the oldest surviving in the city as the Siamese (Thais) had burnt the city down. It was dated about 1820 and had some nice murals inside but photos were not allowed. There was another temple nearby so I went there and got a photo but they were charging 10k entry and I didn't see what for so I walked around it to the park where there was a statue. Supposedly the Mekong river was next to here but it was just grass and earth for a few hundred metres before the river as it was dry season. I walked along the park back to the hostel visiting another temple on the way. I checked into the hostel and it had single beds which was good but no soap. I had a shower and charged a bit before heading out to the national museum which was closed on Mondays, great. I decided to go to the COPE visitors centre as it was a bit out of the way so I wasn't completely wasting my time as it was 3pm and the other museums closed at 4. I saw a temple on the way and then a place called city pillar shrine which wasn't in the map but the pillar had been placed here 500 years ago to mark the city so they had built a building for it. A bit further along was another temple and just past it a small park with a statue. I saw a plaque saying that the road was part funded by the Japanese. Along with the bridges in Pakse and other things I'd seen the Japanese had done a lot to help Laos and there were a few Japanese tourists here. I stopped to buy an ice cream and got to the visitors centre which started with interesting information on how many bombs were dropped on Laos which is the most per capita of any Country. Then they had information about how the unexploded cluster bombs are still a problem which is why Countries have agreed not to use them now. There was quite a lot on rehabilitating people with prosthetic legs etc which is what COPE do. I left and found another temple (Surprise), before a big supermarket where the things were strangely organised but I found some cheap, bruised fruit and got 3 satsumas, an apple and a mango for 5k total. I walked back along a river, crossed a beam bridge and went through a building site and tower before getting to a cathedral which looked ok. The satsumas were ok but had lots of pips, the mango had some waste from the bruises but was absolutely delicious, mango is currently my favourite fruit. I went to That dam, an old looking brick stupa with grass growing on it but it would be less than 150 years old. Still the sun was setting and it was nice so I sat and enjoyed it and ate an apple. I took a slightly different route and went to the last temple of the day and there was a market nearby so I walked through that and then along the river where the sun set a dull red behind the haze as seems to be the norm. I headed back through the market to the hostel and tried to use the internet some more to plan and maybe book a flight but it was too slow. I left to get some food and find a cheap local internet place as there was one nearby charging 12k per hour. There were lots of restaurants and guesthouses and street food places in the area and I began to realise that this is all city centre so I would have to go further. I branched out and found a good street food road where I got fresh spring rolls and a box of noodles for 5k each.
I found the national stadium I had walked past earlier and it was open so I walked in and sat down as they had some kind of football match on. They were ok, better than my team was when I played but they didn't all have the same kits. I ate my food and watched for a bit but some mosquitos took a fancy to me so I made like a tree and got out of there (made like a tree and leafed - idiot). I found a school on the map and since the main clientele of internet shops is kids I went that way and eventually using the map found a place. They didn't speak much English but it was 5k for an hour. I looked up the flights but they were all sold out from Luang Prabang, Skyscanner had a problem as they still reported them available, there were flights from Vientiane to Hanoi instead. The computer was a bit rubbish as it didn't have a usb port free, it was quite slow and google would not load some pages for reasons I couldn't work out. I went to pay after 50 minutes and he tried to charge 10k before he agreed it was 5k and then after didn't have change so I left him 4k and walked to the arch which was nearby and was all lit up. I walked back and went past a fountain I'd been to earlier but now it was lit up and they had live music at the cafe. Back at the hostel it was a bit quiet so I read some and then went to sleep at 10.30.
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