Vientiane, the capital of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos, has left us feeling quite bored. It feels like there is nothing worth doing here that can't be done in a day and neither of us feel like sitting about and relaxing, for once.

We've seen all the major sights, the golden Pha That Luang (the most important national monumnet in Laos) and Patuxai (Laos' Arc de Triomphe replica) and that was all done on our first morning. The rest of the time has been spent sorting out our Vietnam visa (which we got without any trouble from the Vietnam Embassy) and our onward travel. And of course, the rain has returned although the lightning over the Mekong River at night is stunning.

We always knew that we didn't have enough time to do every country which we visit justice and Laos is definitely one country we will have to return to. We have only begun to see the country and now we find ourselves leaving it. We board a 24 hour bus to Hanoi (Vietnam) this afternoon and with it say goodbye to Laos. This bus journey is described as the bus journey from hell in Lonely Planet (which everyone we meet seems to have a copy of) but it's so cheap and the only other option would be to fly but that's too expensive. So board this bus we shall and i'm sure we'll have a good story to tell when we eventually get to Hanoi. Trish is really looking forward to it.

When next we write it shall be in Vietnam (i hope!!!)