We decided to enter Laos from the freindship bridge border straight to Vientiane rather than take a 2 day slow boat from the north. It was a bit of a long winded journey to get there from Chaing Mai, we had to take an overnight bus to Khon Kaen which was really overcrowded and stunk! Then we got a train from Khon Kaen to Nong Khai (the border) The train was really cute it was quite small and I got to see rural Thailand unfortunately Kam didn't as he spent most of the train journey puking, we think that the journey had made him quite ill, he was feeling pretty bad. We got into Laos fine and got on a bus to take us into Vientiane, when we arrived the bus driver tried to charge us a stupid amount of money for our fare, Kam mustered up enough strength to start a bartering show. About 10 tuk tuk drivers surrounded us as the driver and Kam started to haggle...it was a bit like a gameshow, the tuk tuk drivers were cheering the driver on and I was just standing there with our bags silently cheering team England on!!!! Anyway Kam managed to get the driver down 10 times what he originally asked for which we still think was too much, we then had a repeat performance from a tuk tuk driver when he drove us to our hostel!!

Anyway we found nice hostel and settled down, Kam got even sicker once we arrived and had a really high temperature, was really worried that we would have to get a doctor out, I was trying to nurse him when I slipped up and whacked my arm really bad on a wall!! We both had an early night hoping Kam would be better in the morning!

Kam woke up feeling as fresh as a daisy! So we decided to set out and see the sights of Vientiane. Vientiane is the capital of Laos but its definatly not like any other capital city we have seen. Some of the roads are like dirt tracks, its really really quiet like hardly any traffic and there are no high rise buildings or shopping malls (quite nice really!) We went and saw the golden temple which is one of the most famous landmarks of Laos (I've forgotton what its called!) and we looked at it and it was golden! Next we went to Laos very own Arc de triumph, we walked up to the top of it and had a view over Vientiane (which was mostly trees!) then we walked back to our hostel, it was really sunny and then out of nowhere it chucked it down, torrential style! Winnie the pooh came out but even he couldnt protect us from the rain. By the time we reached our hostel we were like drowned rats! In the evening we went for an Indian meal, its the first time we have eaten Indian since we left there, it was horrible so at least it reminded us of India! We also met a lady that had just come on a bus journey from Vietnam to Laos and said that the journey had been horrific and 26 hours long, we have been doing a bit of research into getting to Vietnam and bused just don't sound the best option so we are going to fly there!

So as you can tell Vientiane was a pretty dull place and not much to see, we are off to Vang Vieng next!