Hanging Out in Vientiane

We arrived in Vientiane on Friday (today is Monday) and have spent the last several days wandering around the streets, sampling different coffee stalls (all of which are beyond delicious), and taking in the general laziness of Lao's capital city. Our plan is to go back to Thailand soon for more farm work, so we had to wait until today for the Thai Consulate to be open. We will get our passports back tomorrow. In an attempt to save money on tuk-tuks (SE Asian version of the taxi) we decided to walk to the Thai consulate. Three sweltering, sweat soaked hours later, we finally made it to the consulate just before it closed! We waited for another hour before turning our passports in. "Come back at one o'clock" they told us. We proceeded to try to kill time by finding drinks and noodle soups. We went back to the Thai consulate later, waited in more lines, sweated more, finally reached to front of the line, at which point they told us actually they meant one o'clock tomorrow. Oh.
Now we are back in the central city area, contemplating what to do for the rest of the day. Our plan is to continue North in Laos after we get our passports back. A short stop in Luang Prabang and then further North to a town called Phongsali near the Chinese border. In Phongsali we are hoping to do a trek and explore the jungles before heading back down to Chiang Mai for another WWOOF farm.
We really can't complain about being "stuck" in Vientiane. The food here is excellent and there are a very wide range of options. Two nights ago we ate at a delicious and bustling Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in fresh spring rolls and hot pots. Last night we ate several small things from street vendors that accumulate on the sidewalk once the sun goes down.