Day 24: Thursday 10th March (By AJ).

Vientiene (Capital of Laos).

Another early start after breakfast for the 6 hour journey of beautiful mountain scenery - and very windy roads again! - to the Capital of Laos, Vientiene. We had fruit shakes and baguettes with the group on arrival and then all hired a tuk tuk to visit the local temples. The huge gold stupa looked very impressive from the outside! (We were a bit templed out by this point so didn't pay to look inside). We also climbed the 'unfinished' Laos equivalent of the Arc de Triomphe, which had a very cute market inside but definitely looked unfinished at the top with stairs leading to nowhere! The concrete had been a gift from the Americans intended for Laos to build something practical with, such as an airport runway. But hey that's Laos!

We had a little tour around the town, which was really pretty along the river with a great backpackers atmosphere and lots of bars and cafes. Had street food as a group that night - an amazing basil and chicken stir-fry and then went for a drink overlooking the river. We could see Thailand on the other side! We also saw a lot of lady boys!!!