Continued journey to Vientiane

After a leisurely day of reading and doing nothing on Don Det, we took the boat back to the mainland in the afternoon. Then we continued with a mini van to Pakse. Upon arriving in Pakse (we ran more, as I was nervous about being late because we were running a bit late), we went to the bus station for the overnight buses. Having heard about both great bus rides and horror nights in old clunkers, we decided to choose the bus ourselves in Pakse and not rely on a tour operator.
We immediately headed for the newest bus, and after I had a quick look inside, we bought the ticket. After another fried rice dish, it was already 8:30 p.m. and we were on our way.

We had a comfortable but slightly short sleeping bunk for the two of us. We arrived in Vientiane at 6:00 a.m. after a bumpy but more or less restful night.

We took a shared taxi (more like a livestock transporter) to the city center. It was only a few minutes on foot to our hostel.
We stored our large backpacks and set out to find breakfast. After being refreshed, we explored the sights on foot (there isn't much to see in Vientiane).

Back at the hostel, we finally enjoyed a long-awaited shower. To Silvan's delight, there was warm water here, unlike on Don Det.

For dinner, we went back to the center of Vientiane. We watched the sunset over neighboring Thailand on the Mekong River with a Cambodian IPA (not bad at all). For dinner, we had Pad Thai, reflecting the Thai influence in the area.

Today we continued on to Vang Vieng.