We woke up at about 9am and knew we had to be dressed and outta there asap; this was the kind of guesthouse where people walked into your room unannounced to tell you to get out. (Not really, but close enough).

Edd went downstairs as he'd found an amazing place out of town, but he needed tocall and see if there was space. He came back irate and angry: they had said if his call was longer than 2 minutes, he had to pay 5000kip, he put the phone down in record time and they announced his call was 3 minutes and that he had to pay 5000kip. He enquired as to their proof of the length of the call, to which there was none, and then told them in colourful English that he had no intention of paying and marched back upstairs to me.

After he’d calmed down a bit, he told me that the Jungle House only had room from the 2nd of April, so we had to stay in Vientiane 2 more nights. We decided to walk around and find a cheap backpackers for 2 nights, so packed up our things. We needed to make change as he was worried they’d short-change him the 5000kip for the '3 minute’ phone call, so I went out in search of somewhere that sold water, or would exchange our large notes for smaller ones. We agreed to meet downstairs in 5 minutes.

I walked out the front door with my bags on my back and front and walked to the corner to see if I could spot anywhere that sold water. One of the staff from the guesthouse ran after me and asked if I was checking out, to which I replied that I wasn’t, I was looking for some water and my fiancé was still upstairs. I then walked off, leaving a confused Lao man on the corner, watching me go into a store to make change – I’d found a nail parlour that could accommodate my request.

I then walked back and sat on the balcony, waiting for Edd. One of the staff members came outside and asked me for my room number; I enquired as to why he needed it and he repeated the question, so I repeated my question, to which he repeated his question. I then ignored his question and carried on reading the news on my phone. Another 2 of then joined him and the 3 of them harassed the smallest window in the building with polishing cloths. One of them, that spoke better English, then asked me if my boyfriend was still upstairs, I replied that he was and they then left the now completely transparent window alone and went inside. Subtle. Edd then came out a minute later and I gave him the change for the room, he paid for the room in the exact amount and we couldn’t get out of there fast enough - we’d read reviews on Tripadvisor and other people had experienced the same lack of friendliness.

We looked at a few different backpackers and either weren’t satisfied with the price, they only had dorm rooms (oh hell no) or it didn’t appear that they ever washed the bedding. We finally found ‘Lucky Backpackers’ and Edd was satisfied with the room (he’d gone up to check) he had also managed to bargain them down on price AND it included breakfast (toast and egg, or jam or banana). I joined him upstairs in our room, 202, and we dumped our stuff down. The room comprised of a large double bed that was pushed up against the wall on the right hand side, there was a small space on the left where you walked in, past the bed and into the bathroom. It was so small you could sit on the toilet and shower simultaneously, 2 birds, 1 stone. It also had a cupboard, which we never used and a sink – outside the bathroom – where the toilet paper lived, otherwise it would get wet in the bathroom. It satisfied our basic needs, so we unpacked our bags, sorted out our dirty from our clean clothes (hardly any clean clothes left after the hike) and took our laundry downstairs for them to wash for us. (10 000kip per kilo). We then went in search of a pharmacy (again) and breakfast/lunch.

After walking around for nearly 2 hours (this included walked through the ‘mall’) we gave up, we couldn’t find a pharmacy anywhere. We decided to have lunch at a French restaurant and Edd ordered a curry, I had a cabonara. We sat there for over 2 hours people watching, I discovered that they sold Savana Dry Cidar and had to indulge in the proudly South African drink.

We then decided it was time for an afternoon siesta and walked back to our hostel. Edd had a nap and I finished reading my e-book, downloading 2 more with vouchers I’d received from Amazon via email.

We decided to venture out on search of a pharmacy again at 5pm, after Googling their whereabouts in the city centre. We walked past a wine bar that boasted a happy hour and ended up back tracking to it after the pharmacy expedition proved futile. The German girls were already there enjoying a plate of French fries and we joined them for a beer and a glass of wine.

We parted ways again an hour later as they had restaurants they wanted to try out and we’d already had a big meal for the day. We walked to a local restaurant, which was on the corner of where we were now staying and walked in. The entire restaurant stood still and everyone stared at us – we were the only westerners in the joint. We slinked off to a table in the corner and ordered a Beerlao and a Spy rose (local drinks) as well as dinner; the waitress didn’t speak any English, so we had to order by pointing at things on the menu. Our food arrived in record time and we enjoyed the most delicious meal we’d had since arriving in Laos.

I spotted a local cat and scratched it’s head while we finished off our drinks; Edd got up to pay and I stopped stroking the cat for a second while I watched him animatedly pay for our dinner. The cat then promptly jumped on my lap and made itself comfortable. ‘I shall call you fluffy and you will be mine!’ Edd returned to me and my newly adopted pet and laughed. I had half expected the cat to try and climb on the table to lick the remnants of our delicious meal, I was surprised to learn that being stroked was all it was after and our exit was delayed by me administering large amounts of love to this feline.

We eventually parted ways and headed back for the hostel; we looked forward to another lazy morning of recovery the next day – what a tough life we were leading!