Well, the "Kayaking" to Vientiane turned out to be kind of a scam...but it all worked out. It was supposed to be an alternative to taking the bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane...but...they undersold the ratio of time spent riding in the back of a truck to the time spent actually kayaking. Wound up spending about 4 of the 5 hours in a truck breathing in some wonderful exhaust, and the other hour in the kayak. The only part that really bothered me about this was being explicitly lied to...having traveled for a while now, I have gotten in the habit of asking lots of very specific questions before buying something like this...but that didn't help here, they just told me whatever I wanted to hear. The name of the company is TCK Amazing Tour (should be TCK Crappy Tour). I say this only so that in about 30 years when the google search engine spiders find this page, that maybe it will save someone the same experience. The upside and more interesting part of the story is that the hour spent on the Kayak was one of the more exhilarating I have had on the trip! The river section we did had three sets of rapids and one was guaranteed to make you flip...in actuality, two of them made me flip, but they were all great! I will definitely be looking into where I can do this at home! Arriving in Vientiane, meh, not much to speak of actually. It is the capital of Laos and I saw some interesting temples and such, but all in all, I have seen plenty of places with more character. Upon review of the bus timetables to continue south through the mountainous territory of central Laos on the nonexistent roads, I gave in and did something unspeakable...I changed my plans and flew directly to Cambodia...just don't think I could bear the idea of another 18 hour bus ride at this point in the trip!
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