Grad Trip Day 15 - Vientiane

We reached Nong Khai station at 0510hrs. Halfway through the journey, the train carriage became very cold. I am not sure if it's the weather or the aircon in the carriage. I guess it's both. We were freezing when we got off from the train. The Nong Khai - Vientiane border only opens at 0600hrs. We got on tuktuks to the border from Nong Khai train station (less than 10 mins away). If the tuktuk drivers stop you at a travel agency mid-way to do visas, please insist on going to the border directly. We almost got scammed. From what I know, you can do a visa-on-arrival in Vientiane without engaging the services of the travel agency.

This is the border checkpoint where people are waiting for it to open.

Once the customs are cleared, you have to take a bus (20baht) to cross the bridge over the Mekong to Vientiane. It's quite a distance away, though I saw people walking the whole distance instead of taking the bus. We caught a rising sun over the Mekong!

We checked into the hotel with the help of our Lao friends Bee and Thip. They then brought us around the city for a short tour. This is the Arch of Triumph of Vientiane!

The view from the top! Vientiane is (unexpectedly) neat, clean and comfortably populated! It's nothing like the bustling and polluted Hanoi or Phnom Penh.

Pha That Luang, another attraction in the city.