The bus journey from Vang Vieng to vientiane was luxurious compared to that from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. The road was on much more level terrain, and the driver knew how to work the air conditioning.

Thus, we were soon in the capital of Laos, and had to find a guesthouse. Hefting our bags onto our backs, we wandered through the streets in the heat, checking out a few guest houses before deciding on one which had a nice clean (if tiny) room and breakfast included in the price.

Lucy hadn't been feeling well since that morning, so she spent the evening in the guest house room. I had itchy feet so decided to go for a walk around the town centre, but didn't find very much of interest. Although there were a few pretty french-style buildings the town seemed rather bland and uninteresting, compared to the beauty of Luang Prabang and the sheer oddness of Vang Vieng.

I decided to get some food and went for some more Indian grub at a place with the same name as the one we had visited in Vang Vieng. The menu turned out to be the same, as did the quality of the food, and I enjoyed a tasty mutton curry and naan whilst chatting with an odd couple from 'Scandinavia' sitting at a nearby table. The man was about 30 years older than his partner and was very into 'energy' and the like. They provided an interesting distraction until I returned home to check on Lucy, stopping off to pick her up some Pepsi and Pringles, two guaranteed cure-alls.

Back at the guest house I made an attempt to write some blog updates before relaxing a bit and heading off to sleep. We had decided to save some money by getting a room with a fan and not air conditioning, but it proved to be uncomfortably hot, so we resolved to find a new place to stay in the morning.

After our free breakfast the next morning, we left our bags and had a look around the nearby streets for a new guest house, eventually opting for one just around the corner with a bigger room and air conditioning, but without a window. We checked in then brought our bags from the other place.

Lucy then spent the next few hours on the internet trying to find a place where she could get waxing done. After finally deciding on one, we got a tuk tuk through the town to the spa. I thought since she would be busy getting waxed I wouldn't waste my time, and decided to get a Lao massage at the same time. This turned out to be the best, most relaxing massage I had ever had, similar in style to the Thai massage but with the use of some friction-reducing oil or paste. Whatever it was, it worked and after an incredibly relaxing hour I emerged a new man, to find Lucy waiting in the lobby where she had been for around half an hour, despite her waxing supposedly lasting 1 hour.

From the spa we decided to walk back to our guest house to see a bit of the town, but didn't see much of interest along the way. We stopped at a fruit shake place for some shakes and decided to get some lunch there too, in the form of a very tasty sandwich. After that we continued back to the guest house, with another stop along the way to enquire about buses out to Kong Lor cave, which had piqued my interest.

With Lucy still not feeling great, I set off on another solo mission around Vientiane, hoping to see some of the sights. I left her in the room and walked around the city, past the presidential palace, to a famous temple which was much the same as other temples in Thailand, with lots of gold painted parts and thousands of Buddha statues. It did, however have a nice painted ceiling in the main building.

From the temple I wandered up to the morning market (which was on until 5pm) and found a rather depressing dingy sort of market which seemed to be under a shopping mall which was under construction. After wandering through the narrow, dark passages of the market for a bit, between walls of Angry Birds t-shirts I emerged onto Lan Xang road, the main thoroughfare of the town, a wide tree-lined boulevard.

I walked up the side of this road towards the Victory Arch, an Arc-de-Triomph like structure in the middle of a roundabout, apparently made from concrete originally donated to construct an airport runway.

From there I cut back through the town centre, past That Dam, an old overgrown stupa in the middle of another roundabout, then through the uninspiring city centre streets back to the guest house. Along the way I picked up tickets for the VIP bus to Kong Lor the following day.

Back at the hotel I had a shower, which was a bit of a mission since the monsoon shower head was loose, resulting in a tap-like torrent pouring from one corner of it (Much like the corner of a shop awning in an actual monsoon).

Upon my return to the guest house, I discovered Lucy had a new lease of life, so we headed out to get some dinner, ending up Sticky Fingers cafe just down the road from our guest house. Here I got some chicken satay, whilst Lucy was seduced by the bangers and mash after too little potato intake over the previous few weeks.

Both dishes were delicious, and we returned to the guest house satisifed, with Lucy feeling much better, to chill out for a while before heading off to sleep.