The Stunning Adventures "Not all those who wander are lost." Tolkien

Vientiane came as a little surprise to the Stunnings.  We had initially come to the Capital only to gain access to the Chinese Embassy.  We had planned on leaving the city as soon as we had turned in our passports for our fourth, yeah that's right, fourth Chinese entry visa.  When we arrived, the embassy was only open for another day until it closed for a week in order to celebrate a Chinese holiday.  This was a bit frustrating for us, but it is the usual road block we have encountered while traveling, especially when dealing with a Chinese Embassy.  We did not have time to wait, as our Laos visas would expire before we could get new Chinese visas.  In any event, this gave the Stunnings a fantastic reason to head down into Thailand.  We just hate being forced to do such a terrible thing, it is like someone twisting our arms and coercing us to drink a cold Beer Lao.  Before we left Laos though, we wanted to see what the city had to offer. 
 
The city lies on the Mekong River.  The river is not to terribly clean, you would not be able to see a 300 pound catfish if it were swimming an inch under the surface, but it still provides a nice backdrop to dinner on the riverside; where we found ourselves perched on a number of occasions.  The city is also polka-dotted with quite a number of beautiful old buddhist temples and a complement of robed monks being transported by the pick-up full all about the city.  For a nation's capital, it is quite small and traffic problems are non-existent.  There are a number of food and durable goods markets around the city which are quite enjoyable to wander around in.  The city has it's own Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe and on the outskirts of town one can find the interesting Buddha Park and the much celebrated Beer Lao Brewery.  Along with many sites that we were not able to see, we found that Vientiane has a lot to offer; despite how many bad reviews we had heard in the past.
 
As with most truly great travel experiences, one of the great times we had in Vientiane involved meeting new people.  One night while sitting streetside eating young papaya salad, Greg got up and wandered across the street to procure a couple cold Beer Lao to put out the flames in the mouths of the Stunnings.  After fulfilling the objective, some local Laotians struck up a conversation that included all the usual comments and questions, "Where are you from?,  What is your name?,  Wow, you are tall!,  Do you like Laos?, Do you like Manchester United or Chelsea", etc.  The men were quite friendly and before Greg knew it, he and Elizabeth had been invited to watch a football match at a local pub.  Greg quickly re-crossed the street to tell Elizabeth and finish eating.  She was quite excited to share an evening with some nice Laotians, so we accepted their offer.  Happily, we hopped into the store owner's (one of the nice men) mini-van and headed to "Bor Pen Yang" Pub to see Manchester destroy Chelsea.  The men would not let us pay for anything and they kept ordering beer and food until Elizabeth and Greg felt that they were going to explode.  The  bar was supposed to close at eleven (communists!), but somehow (foreigner patronage, we think) earned the bar some special treatment and did not kick us all out until around twelve.  We all hugged and parted ways and we made our way back to our little hotel.  Laos has proved over and over for us to be full of the friendliest people in the world.  The country, and its citizens, are so poor, but they seem to have an endless reserve of kindness for each other and for visitors.
 
On our last full day in Vientiane, the Stunnings had to fulfill an objective that they had set for themselves on the trip to Laos three years ago.  12 kilometers outside of the capital, the Beer Laos Brewery creates, without a doubt, the finest beer in southeast Asia.  Tours are available to the public, as well as beer tasting.  The Stunnings really felt as thought they had gotten the short end of the stick when the big red "R" came down beside I-5, to be replaced by the big green "T", before they turned 21 and were able to visit one of Seattle's true landmarks; so this was to be the next best thing.  We caught the public bus out to the brewery and quickly got assigned to the next tour.  The operation was quite technologically advanced and was really quite fun to see the process, in action.  No pictures were allowed (industry secrets, or something like that), but the trip was quite fun.  After tasting the beer, straight off the line, we further agreed how nice it is.  Feeling as though we had really accomplished some great goal, we hopped into a small tuk-tuk and headed back to the to prepare our things for the next days journey into Thailand.  The next day, we hopped on our overnight bus and headed across the Friendship bridge and into Thailand, but that is entirely different story.