Our journey into Laos was eventful.Our bus was late back from Halong Bay, so they sent a guy on a motorbike to meet us and walk us to a taxi, where our washing was also waiting for us!We eventually got to the sleeper bus and found we had double sleeper beds which were quite comfy.The journey was supposed to be 20 hours, but ended up being more like 22.In the morning they woke us up at the border to buy our Visa's and they tried to charge Graham a lot more than they had charged me.It was all so chaotic as there is no queuing system, they just take everyone forms in then randomly ask for money.As we were trying to pay in Vietnamese Dong and US Dollars it all got a bit complicated, which is what I think they bank on, as they know you are tired and so not as on the ball as usual.However, they chose the wrong person to try and rip off as I saw red!I barged back to the desk and told everyone that they had charged my husband a lot more than I had paid, as I knew this should cause a reaction, and it worked.They gave me back the extra they had charged, plus a little extra in US Dollars. So that made up for the commission they had charged me for using Vietnamese Dong.It really pays here to make a scene - I'm going to be terrible when I get back to England, so be warned!

Anyway, in Vientaine now and it is such a chilled out capital city - more like a small town.We were so tired when we arrived that we just found a hotel, then went for food, and this time it was Graham's turn to complain.Food is quite expensive in the tourist areas here and his $6 burger was under cooked and mushy, so he refused to pay for it and the manager was very apologetic, so we're both getting good at complaining!

Yesterday we did some sight seeing.Vientaine is so small that this does not take long, so after a morning on the internet whilst there was a storm, we headed out for a walk in the afternoon.First we went to the National Museum, which was like a village hall.It made me have a great sense of warmth for the Laos people as they have so little in their museum, and it is quite a pathetic collection compared to other countries, but at the same time it was nice that they were proud of their collection of broken pieces of pottery and few stuffed animals!It took us about 30 minutes to get through the 18 rooms and that was reading all material given!Next we walked to That Dam (some monument) and then to Wat Si Saket, the only remaining original temple from the wars/turmoil in Loas.All sights are really cheap to get in, but non take very long to get around.We then went for food and think that Bill Bryson was in the same restaurant as us.We didn't want to go and ask him, but if he writes a book about South East Asia in the next couple of years, we'll know it was really him!

Today we met up with our friends from Sapa and took a tuk tuk to see the other 2 sight of Vientaine.First we went to Pha That Luang, the impressive gold national monument.Then, after the driver of the tuk tuk got his vehicle working again (Graham was eager to help) we went to Patuxai, which is Vientaine's Arc de Triomphe.It doesn't really look that much like it, but it's an arc and you can climb to the top and get a good view of the city!The only thing we missed was the Budda Park, but that was quite a lot further away, and we felt we'd seen enough Budda's by now!We came back and met some friends of our friends, so are hopefully going to meet up with them in Vang Vieng for Graham's birthday, as this is the party town that we are headed to tomorrow.

It seems really chilled out in Laos, but we're preparing ourselves for the madness that we have heard Vang Vieng has in store for us…….

Maggie x