To be honest Vientiane was a bit of a disappointment for me. When I first arrived I thought it looked a good place from the outset. It has a very French orientation, there's lots of luxury hotels and good restaurants but apart from that I didn't find much else.

I hired a bike and visted the Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe (Patuxai), and the most important monument in Laos, the Pha That Luang. Neither was really that impressive. Patuxai was unfinished and had a market selling souvenir tshirts and other tat inside.

I had intended to travel south to Parse and the 4000 islands and then go into Cambodia, but the road south had been closed due to flooding and there was no date for when it would be open again. I didn't want to stay in Vientiane indefinately so I opted to go back into Thailand and travel south from there. I was a bit disapointed as don't think I've seen the best of Laos after only 8 days, but hey ho these things happen when you visit a country in the middle of it's rainy season!