After have a long sleepy night on the night train (we splurged on a cabin! Mmmm yes waking up in a bed with the Thai countryside rolling by!) we arrived in the border town of Nong Kai and like most border towns there's usually not a lot one can do apart from pass through them, however Chris read about some sculpture garden that was worth seeing. Wasn't too sure what was meant by sculpture garden but then our tuktuk rattled into the park it was pretty clear we were at a sculpture park. Over 30 massive statues (more than 50 ft high many of them) looming over us, Buddha's in all shapes and sizes and Hindi and Buddhist mixed iconography. Well worth the visit, probably the most impressive thing we've seen outside of Bangkok so far.

We got across the border pretty damn hassle free and got a tuktuk into Vientiane. Our jumbo filled with 8 Loa woman, which I thought was a pretty unusual site but soon realized there seemed to be about 3 Loa women to every man and enough so for every western man to come and claim a Loa wife! The long awaited rains soon came down and persisted for 3 days straight. Only to stop when we were leaving Vientiane.

Vientiane as a capital pretty much sums up Loas. Calm, chilled out, hassle free and pretty...although not stunning but not average either. We did most of our sight seeing on foot as it was such a compact tiny place to navigate and often found ourselves walking from one end of the city to the other in a few hours. I think I can see why people think Loa people are not as friendly as their Thai counterparts however its not that they're unfriendly they just give you your own space and don't bother you about anything. It was pretty amusing to see a capital city shut down at 11 pm as a government curfew is enforced. I've heard any country that proclaims themselves as democratic as is the Peoples Democratic Republic of Loas, is pretty much quite the opposite. The people seem very happy though and I think they would be tucked away in bed any way by 10 pm curfew or no curfew.

There were some stunning wats and landmarks at every corner. Putuxai was a very unusual one. Referred to as the arc de triumph of the East, at the end of a champs ellisay mimic avenue and also called the vertical runway as it was built from concrete that was meant to built a runway. Being my first ex French colony I was on the look out for anything French and you can defiantly see the influence. The freshest French rolls I've had outside of Paris, amazing bakeries, fantastic cuisine, fountains, grand buildings and café culture. It's a lovely little capital to spend some time in but if you're just here for a short while, 3 days is enough to see and do. We caught a bus to Loas' biggest party town Vang Vieng and said goodbye to possibly the sleepiest countries capital in the world.