We flew to the capital, Vientiane with Lao airlines. The thought of this filled Stephen with dread. He is not the best of flyers in the first place and Lao airlines have had a pretty poor reputation for years. Foriegn embassies have tried to dissuade their employees from using them, but recently they have raised their game and now lease more modern aircraft from Vietnam. The flight was still in a small turbo prop plane but only lasted 40 minutes. The trip was good and we even had time for a small meal to be served which puts America's United Airlines to shame, (they left us to go hungry for a 5 hour flight!).

The attractions of Vientiane are not immediatly apparent, but we soon found that we liked it. It must be one of the smallest capital cities in the world with a population of just over 500,000. We met a Dane called Jon who described it as the worlds largest village. We were having a BeerLao, (one of the nicest beers we've ever tasted,) by the Mekong when he came ambling over and we just started talking. He's a fireman living in Greenland and comes to Laos every year. He had a great knowledge of the place and became our guide. He took us to an excellent restaurant that we would never have found ourselves. You sat around a bucket of hot coals which had a domed pan on top. Around the edge of the pan you ladelled in water and blanched your vegetables and noodles and higher up the domed bit you put strips of meat or fish to sizzle away until it was cooked. When you took some meat off to eat you just replaced it with the next piece and so the meal progressed bit by bit until you had eaten your fill. It was both tasty and healthy, and what he called "slow eating" so bloating and indigestion were impossible.

We met him on the sacond day and he showed us round the sights. Again the city was easily explored on foot and he knew where was worth seeing and what was not worth bothering with, so we didn't waste our time. We saw the best temple, quite unlike anything we had seen previously and went up the Patuxai, the Lao 'Arc de Triomphe'. We finished off by seeing the National Museum which was really quite good although there was a fair deal of communist propaganda, (Here are displayed some guns seized from the puppets of the American imperialists)!

All too soon it was time to move on again, courtesy of Lao Airlines, for the short flight, (75 mins) to Hanoi and our next destination, Vietnam. We would dearly love to return to Laos for a more in depth look at the country which has so much beautiful scenery, such friendly people and such a layed back attitude to life and living.