After a quick stop in Hanoi to see its best museum and opera house, we decided to move on to Laos. This was mainly due to Hanoi celebrating its 1000th birthday so it was even more chocca-block than it usually is! So we took on the 24 hour bus to Vientiane, the capital. It was by no means as bad as people had been making out and even the border crossing was no hassle (it helped that we had sorted out our visas already in Hanoi). We travelled with a decent group of people as well which really helped but they all carried on to Luang Prabang while we had always planned to visit Vientiane first.

After finding some decent accommodation and catching up on sleep we had a relatively easy week, throwing in the main tourist highlights along the way. We walked the 5km on the third day to Pha That Luang, the Laos national monument that doubles up as a temple. After three months of travelling we have grown a little tired of seeing temples but this one was definitely an exception. It was made of what looked like solid gold and was impressive in height and design. There were three levels to it and it definitely made for some quality photos. It's quite obvious why the Laos people are so proud of it and we came to see that as nearly every postcard sold around the city has some image of it involved!

Another impressive monument we visited was the so called 'Arc de Triomphes of the east'. It was right to be called this as from a distance it looked remarkably similar to the French landmark (more examples of the French influence on south-east Asia). However, when seen close up the huge arch was definitely individual with lots of Buddhist artwork engraved on it and Asian-looking turrets on each corner. You could walk the steps all the way to the top and it gave pretty impressive views of the whole of Vientiane. You could even see over the Mekong river which borders the city and catch a glimpse of Thailand which is just across the Mekong.

In between a few days of relaxing around the city we visited the biggest market in the city, Talot Sao but found it to be just like the markets in Thailand. We also found a great little cafe that did good local food (the best being Laap, a minted beef dish from Vientiane) as well as offering music for iPods. After three months of travelling Dan and I welcomed the chance to refresh the iPods and we didn't take it for granted, spending hours browsing through the massive directory! We should now be ready for any more ridiculously long bus journey that are likely to come our way!

We're now getting ready to leave for Vang Vieng, probably the most visited place by westerners. I doubt it will be anything like the rest of Laos!