We got to the South bus station in Luang Prabang at half 7 to find a VIP bus to Vientiane leaving at 8am. Perfect. It wasn't the best bus journey to say the least. We had seats in the bottom, which wasn't too bad but you couldn't stand up straight, so you literally had to crawl in and out every time we stopped. Richards seat was broken and kept flying backwards. Behind him a Lao woman was making the most disgusting noises and it turned out she was being sick in a carrier bag. Not nice, in such a little confined space and the smell was horrendous. She didn?t seem at all bothered about the fact she was puking her guts out. And what would she do when we stopped? Eat whatever she could get her hands on! It was sooo disgusting, Richard and I had to listen to our mp3 players the whole but somehow she timed it so she'd be sick in the change of song. The bus managed to make it to Vientiane after breaking down a couple of times. It took 10 hours in total which is how long a local bus normally takes. If it wasn't for the woman behind we wouldn't be complaining half as much as the views were something else. Because we made our Vietnam visas to start on the 31st January, we had to wait in Vientiane till then. This was at least 2 full days. We didn't quite think about that when we bought them. The sensible thing would have been to start them straight away as they last a month. We booked a room at a hostel as we were arriving late in the evening, and as the guys at the bus station were idiots they crammed about 12 people on the back of a truck with all our luggage, and dropped us off in the city center. I call it a city as it's the capital but there isn't anything to the place really. No bigger than Rugby or Leamington really. Nothing to do or see. I felt a little bad for skipping out Plain of Jars but it would have been just too much hassle and travel to get there and back with limited time. During our stay in Vientiane we ate an Indian curry (which we miss), lots of baguettes, went to a museum, and went to Pra That Luang. (a giant golden stupa.) The Vientiane National museum was very strange and quite comical. It started off as a normal national museum:- pottery, tools from centuries ago, old jewelry, tribal belongings etc. Then it went onto the war, each room contained each stage. The Indochina war (1945-'54) The America war (the secret war '54-'75) - This is when the Americans bombed the hell out of Laos. It dropped more bombs on Laos alone than it did during the whole of WWII. The net room contained all the information o the communists gaining power and how great they were. The rest of the museum contained brilliant things that the communists have done since gaining power. This included plumbing and electrical stations. They also had a whole cabinet of drugs (amphetamines, a huge brick size block of heroin, a big carrier bag full of marijuana, and cocaine). Another cabinet contained loads of animal vaccinations, stating how great it is that they vaccinate their animals now (good but not museum worthy). Unfortunately there was only a tiny little box that contained a couple of bombs and grenades. You'd have thought that as they are clearing mine fields, that cover the majority of the country and kill hundreds of people every year, it'd be a great thing to be proud of. Obviously they would rather display bottles of vaccines. Richard and I found the captions for many displays quite funny, for example "These guns were brought into Laos by the evil Americans to slaughter the Lao people". U.S Guns doesn't quite fit it hey! The other main attraction in Laos is Pra That Luang stupa. As mentioned above it is a gigantic golden stupa (big pointed conical shape rising into the sky). It is a little out of the way, so we hoped on a bike tuk tuk. Its location is at the end of a real long boulevard and it just looks amazing sitting on the horizon. You can see it as soon as you turn onto the road, no matter how far away you are. The suns rays bounce of the gold leaf paint. To be honest it looks so much better from afar than upclose. Up close all the paint is chipping off, and as it's gold leaf they can't repaint it too regulary. Lots of stalls sit outside selling to the tourists, not missing an opportunity. There are some grand looking buildings and Wats on each side of the stupa; all look fairly new and beautiful. Although we did spend 3 whole days here, we didn?t do too much. We couldn?t do much! Most of the day we spent walking around deciding where to eat and ust generally walking leisurly. Finally the 30th came around which we could take an overnight bus to Han oi as we got to the boarder after midnight, which would be the 31st. Thankfully we didn?t have to spend one more day here.