We stopped off at Vientiane, the capital, for one night on our way down to the 4000 islands. Vientiane sits on the border with Thailand, the Mekong separating the two countries and three months before we were sitting on the opposite side in Nong Khai.

We settled for the first hotel in our guide book, it wasn't the best but we only needed it for one night. We found a restaurant serving bacon cheeseburgers and couldn't resist. After a good nights sleep we had a disappointing breakfast, fried eggs and almost raw bacon. Vientiane was scorching in the day, the north hadn't been so warm, so we decided against the bike ride we had planned and sat on a cafe terrace sipping smoothies and eating pastries whilst doing some planning. We had a bus booked for 7 o'clock so we had an early dinner at a pizza restaurant recommended on the Internet, it was rather disappointing and opposite a building site.