Can someone please tow Australia closer to the rest of the world?

Yesterday started with a midnight cab ride to Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne. Then a sleepover on the plane to Singapore.





Sunrise saw us on the way to Bangkok and lunch was eaten in-flight to Vientiane, Laos.





So sixteen hours after leaving home we pulled up in front of the Salana Hotel. We are on the top floor with great views across the city and the mighty Mekong River.







Except the mighty Mekong River is just a trickle in a vast river bed.

We decided to check out the surrounding streets and found we were in the middle of a street cafe restaurant area. Some even had the menu items alive to choose from.

Anyone for frog?



It's hot but not as muggy as Bangkok and but a cool drink was called for.





There are a lot of French restaurants around: a hangover from the French colonial days and we chose one just around the corner, Le Vendome. The food was great and we had an interesting time talking to another Australia couple who were on their first Asian tour. She was sported a compound fracture of the shoulder after falling off a bike in a rice paddy in Vietnam. What a trooper.





After dinner we strolled to the Saturday Night Market on the banks of the dried river.

It was very much a local scene with lots of colour and music.







On the way back to the hotel we struck another conversation with a French doctor who was on R&R from a leper colony. After we had shaken hands she told us not to worry about contagion.

I hadn't until she said that.



Finally after a very long day, time to sleep.