Left the hotel in Hanoi at our usual 6:30 departure. Streets were already very busy with commuters and kids cycling to school. It was a dreary wet morning so we were glad to be away. Our driver seemed to be conducting some extra business of his own on the way to the airport so we had a couple of brief stops and numerous calls on his mobile phone. The hotel had very kindly made us up some breakfast boxes so we scoffed that down with a coffee at the airport. The flight was only 50 min long and we arrived in Vientiane before lunchtime. Another very nice small hotel. Our room was not ready so we left the bags and set off for a stroll around town to see how much change there had been since we lived here in 1993 to 1996. Things looked more prosperous and the town was full of backpackers etc. which were pretty much non existent 20 years ago. We dined this evening at our "favourite" restaurant l'Opera which, to our amazement, is still run by Pino and even has mostly the same staff. One waitress even recognised Cheryl and said "Nice to see you again, you haven't been in for a while"! It was a slow night so Pino had time to chat and fill us in on the changes. Lots more traffic and many big investments by the Chinese. Happily, the food was just as we had remembered and just as good.