We arrived in the capital of Laos that morning. My goodness what a contrast to Vietnam's bustling cities that never sleep. Laos only has a total population of 6 millionm so no wonder the pace of life here seems slow and lazy compared to that of Vietnam with a population of 85 million people. As we wander the streets, we can't quite get over the fact that this small town is supposed to be a capital city - it's madness - there's nothing here!There are only three main roads that run parallell from one another, and car's actually stop to let you cross - now that's a welcome change, but such occurances shouldn't occur in a supposed capital, should they?

We went to see the 'major' attractions, yes even more temples. Almost everything is withing walking distance from each other, except perhaps Laos's 'most important monument - Pha That Lung, - a huge golden stupa, for which we had to take a tuk tuk to get to. From a distance, it did look impressive, and pictured beautifully underneath the white hot sun, and the deep blue sky. However, taking a close look, it was in need of a serious paint job. So much for it been decorated in gold leaf. We later went to see the Freedom monument as well as few more temples, before the sun became unbearable. Laos is definately the hottest country to date. There was only one thing for it - to use an upmarket hotel's swimming pool for a few hours.

There really is very little to do in this 'city', which has colonial French buildings stuck all over it - we did enjoy the bakeries and suchlike however, there is little else to report.