Vientiane does not have a high street like most capital cities have nor does it give off an exuberant vibe. It was deadly quiet and the people do not hassle you for a tuk tuk, massage, tour etc. It's hard to believe that Vientiane is actually a capital city!?

The French have certainly left their stamp on Vientiane, theres plenty of French bread and French restaurants to choose from! Vientiane has plenty of crumbling French mansions and bougainvillea­-blooming streets! We certainly did spend some time at a bakery taking advantage of free wifi and yummy baked goods!

There were however a few tourist attractions worth visiting such as the Patuxai which is nicknamed the vertical runway as USA donated the concrete for Lao to build an airport but of course, Laos thought differently and built a 'replica' of the Arc de Triomphe. As we have had enough of temples and sworn off them for a little while we whizzed by a couple of temples just to complete our 'tick list'. (No more now until after Australia, apart from Angkor Wat obviously!)

Basically, during our time in Vientiane we just wandered around aimlessly and spent some time taking in the views of the Mekong River at very very low tide and you can see Thailand. We did visit the night market and planned on getting food but we decided against as we were spoilt for choice in Luang Prabang that another night market is never going to come a close second.

On our last evening, Nick went out to watch the Ireland Vs Wales game and to his surprise there were ample Welsh supporters so he had a great night finished off with a win for Wales. Helen was back at the guesthouse sleeping as she was feeling under the weather!

It makes us really proud to be British when we think of London as our capital city and compare it to the likes of Vientiane. Sorry that this is a rubbish blog, but Vientiane did not really impress us, perhaps we did not stay long enough to do it justice?