Vientiane, the big city (for Laos that is)

So I'm in the capital of Laos, Vientiane. But still the only western thing I've seen is a Novatel Hotel. Still no Mac Donalds or Starbucks or any of that stuff. Today I took an expensive cab ride out to Buddha park. It is past the friendship bridge (the bridge that connects Laos to Thailand across the Mekong) about 24k outside the city. And there were parts of it that were dirt roads almost. And then as soon as I got there it started raining. Just a little at first so I got to take some photos, but then it started pouring and of course I forgot my umbrella so I got soaking wet. So I just came back into town and went to the morning market to do some shopping. Then I came back to watch some BBC and I think I fell asleep for a bit. I haven't been sleeping very well. I wake up like every hour it seems. The bed in this hotel room is like the most uncomfortable bed ever. It feels basically like I'm sleeping on the sidewalk. But the rest of the room is nice and the shower is nice and hot, so whatever. We have a 7 hour bus ride tomorrow to a little boarder town. And then the next day we cross over into Vietnam.