We took the bold decision to fly from Siam Reap to Laos as the 48 hour bus ride just held absolutely no appeal. The write up in Lonely Planet for Laos Airlines did not fill us with confidence but this journey is all about us taking some risks I guess! We did survive the flight in case you're wondering....it was one of those twin propellor jobs, no life jackets under your seat (but then we did only fly over 1 small river) and some questionable seat belts but hey, at least we got some sandwiches and luminous green sponge cakes to snack on!!! Vientiane is the capital of Laos sitting alongside the Mekong. Its quite small and relaxed....and, well, that's about it really. There was very little to do which made hiring a motorbike a bit pointless - but we did it anyway to see the Pha That Luang "Great Sacred Stupa" (big golden monument that's the most important national monument in Laos). The drama of the day was not being able to get the motorbike steering lock off which did draw a crowd of at least 4 local people. Once Steve and I had exhausted ourselves and disappeared into a pool of sweat, our hero in the shape of Mr Lao stepped up to the task and hey presto our bike was free once again to chug along the streets of Vientiane. We managed to waste the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing - we have become quite good at this over the course of the last 4 months....sightseeing is so overrated don't you know! We did meet up with Carly and Blair fresh from their trip to Beijing; the shock of going from the blazing heat of Vietnam to zero degrees in China made them both ill - we did warn them. They did remarkably well however to help us down jug after jug of Beer Lao in a pre birthday celebration. The shooters completely finished us off and we staggered back to the guest house, having to wake up the lady as we missed the 11.30pm curfew....oops! I drifted off to sleep to the sounds of Mr Stocks vomiting in the adjoining bathroom....Happy Birthday Me!!!