OKey dokey. So we got the bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, it took about 4 hours with a quick toilet stop & then dropped us nowhere near the bus station... but it did drop us smack bang in the middle of backpackerville, so no problems there. After a little wander round & a having looked a couple of dodgy rooms (thanks very much Lonely Planet!!), we settled on a nice enough place on the main road running alongside the Mekong. We even had a pretty decent balcony & could just about see through the trees, across the river & into Thailand. That's about it really. It was a nice place, but very quiet & apart from the usual temples etc etc didn't seem a huge amount to do. We did go to the Laos equivalent of the Arc de Triomphe called Patuxai, paid for with American money intended for a new airport... It was quite impressive & gave some decent views over the city (seemingly the only flat part of Laos), if a little run down & in need of a sprucing up. Other than that we spent most of our time wandering around the city & stopping off at some very nice cafe's. Off to Hanoi for our first taste of Vietnam!!!