We woke up at 6 am to eat breakfast before we had to check out of the hotel. We had a noon flight from Danang to Hanoi then from Hanoi to Vientiane Laos. But before we headed to the airport, there was one more place in Danang was really wanted to see, Marble Mountain! Our hotel arranged a taxi ride for us from Hoi An to Danang and then from Marble Mountain to the airport. I believe we paid 20$ CAD for the entire trip, including the drivers wait time while we explored the mountain.

When we arrived at Marble Mountain, it was so early that the ticket booth was abandoned. So, unable to pay entrance, we wandered up the steps. We had the place virtually to ourselves!!!! We explored for about an hour before we had to wander back to our taxi and get to the airport. We could have easily spent an entire day exploring the caves and temples of marble mount!

The rest of the day was spent flying or waiting at the airport in Hanoi. We arrived in Vientiane Laos, just as the sun was beginning to set!

The visa on arrival in Laos is pretty simple, we had pre filled out our forms before leaving Canada and only waited maybe two minutes while they processed our visa. As Canadians, we had to pay 62$ American for the visa which has always been way more than any other country. Jives received 3$ US change, while I payed 65$… but I wasn’t about to fight the scary border control man over my change. We then went through customs and exchanged some money in order to get a cab ride into Vientiane. We payed about 6$ CAD for the taxi ride from the airport to our hotel in the heart of the downtown core.

We stayed in our own hut at this amazing hotel, Auberge Sala Inpeng!! It was 50$US a night, but included breakfast. This was our one major accommodation splurge on the trip…. after all, this trip was supposed to be a honeymoon, right?!

http://www.salalao.com/sala_inpeng/content/inpeng.htm

We booked directly through their website, and I think that means they get paid more (not the booking agency) so I’d recommend that!

We checked into our hotel, and then decided to walk one block to the night market to find some food.

Sitting on our favourite plastic stools along the road way, we drank our first Beer Laos and shared a rice omelet and some springrolls! I had been to Vientiane before in 2011 and was so excited to share the magic of Laos with Jives over the next few days!