Sara and Matt left us the same day we arrived in Vientiane, on the 25th. And great fun as it had been travelling in a team of four for a while, Paula and I had also very much been looking forward to a couple of days of recuperation (which translates to basically doing nothing), having virtually moved non-stop since leaving Siem Reap three weeks earlier. Which is exactly what we did, hence I have very little to write about our time in Vientiane! Despite having the most mosquito infested bathrooms I've ever come across, our periodic battles to shower or use the toilet not exactly helping in our bid to lower pulse rates, we did have wifi and the HBO channel in our room and a supply of hot water for tea and coffee, so our chill-out criteria were met.

Matt reckoned he'd seen and done all that was worth seeing and doing in Vientiane in a single day. I think he was right. We visited the two main sites, the golden monument, Pha Tat Luang, and the Patuxai (Laotian Arc de Triomphe), both of which were interesting, but neither of which were overly memorable, leaving cafes and restaurants as our principle, and in fact only other, places of interest. Food, therefore, is the main subject mater, and I think three small experiences deserve mention a mention; one good, one confusing, one amusing.

I'll start with the latter, because it's brief. Fridge freezers being a fairly rare commodity in Laos, cost of purchase and high energy use the reasons, I imagine, and, in their capacity as the source of ice lollies, Paula makes the most of it when we find them. Cheap, sweet, refreshing in a hot climate, I daresay a low calorie count, why not, absolutely. Reputation, however, prevented her from buying more than one a day from the same place, so in order to provide Paula with the quantity of ice lollies she required, from the convenience shop conveniently situated next door to our hotel, I became her ice lolly runner! I expect I'll earn a kick in the shin for this paragraph, and a stern reminder that it only happened a couple of times, but nevertheless, it amused me sufficiently to take the risk!

"Good" was a specific place, but it was better than good, it was brilliant. Douang Deuane Restaurant is owned by an aging, piano playing Frenchman, who was friendly in a wonderfully genuine, not extroverted, in fact slightly bashful, way, a manner that also appeared to have become engrained in his smiley, Laotian staff. The food was unpretentious and flawless, with dished served simultaneously, and promptly but not too quickly. We ate there twice, not ordering anything particularly fascinating, just a curry, a salad, some fresh spring rolls, and drinks, although I'm sure a number of more interesting house specialities were on the menu, but it was perfect. Eat there if you ever go to Vientiane, and I'm certain you won't be disappointed.

And "confusing" is, to me, at least, this strange concept of going to a restaurant and paying more to cook your own food. I stumbled across it accidentally, at a riverside street stall, having ordered a seafood something-or-other, which sat in prime position at the top of the menu. I didn't know what it was, but thought I'd give it a go. The price wasn't the cheapest, but was reasonable, and I correctly assumed a seafood version wouldn't also contain meat. And what I got was a similar thing to that which Paula received when she tried the Vietnamese "hot pot" back in Sapa a couple of months earlier. The dish consists of a small heater and a cooking pot that sits on top, filled with boiling water and placed in the middle of the table, with a plate or two of ingredients, including vegetables, a few herbs, spices, pieces of lime, etc. Plus, in my case, some raw, mixed seafood. And then you cook it yourself, blending ingredients as you see fit, and cooking them for the length of time you want to. Why?! Why would I go to a restaurant to cook my own dinner? They're the experts, it's their job, they should know how to combine some chilli, lime and seasoning better than I do! And you pay more for the privilege! Honestly, I don't get it. Very confusing.

And finally, it wouldn't be the story of our travels if there wasn't more passport fun to be had! We decided to extend our Laos visas by a couple of weeks, as we'd warmed to the country, decided we'd like to see more of it, as well as spending more than a day or two in the places we were going to visit, and then posters of the 2011 Laos Elephant Festival, set to take place about three weeks later, sealed the deal. So we got to the immigration office on the Friday morning, went through the motions, paid, felt pleased with how smoothly it had all gone, and were then told by the man behind the desk that we could pick up our passports on Monday. What? Just stamp it, that's all you have to do now! But no, it wasn't to be stamped until Monday morning. There was obviously nothing we could do, and there was also nothing more we wanted to do in Vientiane. Even HBO and free wifi didn't make three more nights at Mosquit-hotel appeal sufficiently, so we decided on our third backtrack in two months, by going up to Vang Vieng, before returning to pick up our passports, and heading on to Luang Prabang after that. Via Vang Vieng.