A rare "normal" wake-up and a leisurely breakfast. The hotel in Vientiane is French run and very pleasant. Our flight is not until 1:40pm so we had time to walk around town a bit. Walked down to what was the Morning Market but it has been eclipsed by multi-storey malls on either side and looks ready to be demolished. All the silver and jewellery stalls have moved into the slick new buildings but still sell the same stuff they sold 20 years ago. The big difference is all the stores now selling smart phones, iPads etc. The domestic terminal is the old "international" from our days in Laos. We had time for lunch at the cafe in the departure lounge before our flight. The flight was only half an hour before we arrived at Phonsavanh. The baggage reclaim area at the airport surpassed even Myanmar for disorganisation but there were not many people on the flight so it wasn't a problem. The hotel at Phonsavanh, with the grandiose name of "Auberge du Plaine des Jarres" could best be described as "rustic". Supposedly a French-run "auberge" but .... It is difficult to find anything nice to say about the place and it is by far the worst accommodation so far. Sort of a Fawlty Towers hunting lodge with lots of mangy antlers and horns of long dead animals tacked askew on the walls. The staff were on a par with Manuel but there was no Basil around.