Well we arrived safely in Vientaine and after getting of the bus and grabbing our bags we were asked by a tuk tuk truck driver where we were going, we showed him the name of the guest house and he said he knew where it was. This was fantastic news as it meant that we had actually made it to the correct city. We agreed a price and he even said he would take us to an ATM to get Laos money out. We jumped on with a few other people drove about 20 yards then he stopped. He walked up to us and pointed down towards the exit and said the ATM was that way and I could walk there. He said he would meet me back at the truck, cheers for taking me the 20 yards mate, think it would have been easier to walk it then climb into the truck as my rucksack got caught. I left Rachel looking after the bags and walked round trying to find the ATM, finally after walking round the whole bus station I found it. Not fully knowing what the exchange rate was I took out 1 million kip (hopefully its not 1 to 1 otherwise I really need to win the lottery when I get back).

I finally headed back towards the truck and …… it was gone, ahhh where was Rachel, I wondered round for a bit then finally heard Rachel's voice shouting my name. The truck then came into view and it was moving towards the exit so I ran towards it and jumped on saving the driver having to stop…….. but he stopped 20 yards latter anyway. We then waited….. and waited……ad waited some more. After 45 minutes and being told that we would be leaving in 10 minutes about 5 times over we finally gave in.

We told the driver not to worry we were going to walk it (as the bus stop on the lonely planet book was only a mile walk from the centre, thankfully he didn't seem that bothered. As soon as we climbed off another guy came up offering us a traditional Tuk Tuk just for us 2. We told him we were just gonna walk and he shuck his head and told us it was around 12 km. I thought it was a con but didn't really fancy the walk anyway, so when we haggled his price down to 10,000 kip lower then the previous price we thankfully agreed as we then drove for around half an hour. Guess there's more then 1 bus stations in Vientaine.

We finally arrived at the Guest House (which Rachel had picked) and asked if they had a room. They pointed at a few rooms available, double fan with toilet was 80,000 kip (£6.20) per room per night or double air con with toilet was 100,000 kip (£7.70) per room per night. We decided to save the extra 75p each a night and went for the fan option. We got shown to the room, which was very basic but did the job. We had a quick freshen up shower and then Rachel finally persuaded me that we should put our stuff into the laundrette instead of washing them ourselves. I took the items, which had been soaked in the yellow rainwater on the bus and handed them over then reluctantly paid the £2 for 2.5kg of washing.

We then decided to go out and get some food and explore, but when we came to shut the door the lock didn't work so I told reception. They pointed at a pad lock bracket and said they would give me a lock and went off to get one. I was fairly happy with this until I noticed the bracket was only held on with 2 screws, which could be undone or easily pulled off when the padlock was locked. I asked instead for a different room and he showed me one that was nicer and the door lock worked, even though it was probably no more safe as a little shove would probably pop it open.

We then headed out to the streets of Vientaine the capital of Laos. This is like no capital I have ever seen in my life, at first I assumed they must have a no driving in the city law, as there was hardly any cars. Then I wondered if they had a no walking in the city law, as there were hardly any people. We walked towards the Mekong River and stopped at a nice restaurant for dinner. Rachel got a green curry mmmm, and I got burrito's and chips mmmmmm. We also got 4 bottles of water to try and re-hydrate from the bus ride, which the waiter laughed at.

Afterwards we headed down and reached the River, after I had to drag Rachel through all the market stalls. We sat relaxing on the side of the river for a while before heading to a bar for me first beer laos where they had live music. We then headed back to the hardest mattress I have ever slept on.

The following day (Friday) we got up and headed out to explore during the day (it was still extremely quiet). We walked down towards the river had a look at the outside of various temples and then headed back through the town to see various fountains, statues, government buildings and more temples. Realising that there wasn't much to do in this capital city we headed to a WiFi restaurant to review the plan and research into what to do in the next few places. We had a special deal for 3 courses trying to drag it out all afternoon to use their internet. We then went for a little walk along the river to watch the sunset and also had a bonus lightening display.

We popped back to the guest house for a bit before deciding we'd check out the local bowling. We walked down some back roads to get there (full of cockroaches) and arrived at the Laos bowling alley. Unfortunately they were fully booked (shockingly in this quiet town) so we left, but it was nice to have a peek at what it looked like - exactly like back at home just smaller. We decided to go for a banana milkshake back in our WIFI restaurant before heading to bed.