We had arranged to race through Laos, spending only a week there and our last port of call was the capital, Vientiane. The city is much more built up than in Luang Prabang and the traffic never seemed to stop but it still has character. Western influences are still strong here, but the big companies aren't, making Laos our first country without a Starbucks, McDonalds or KFC.

Also conspicuous by its absence is water. Our hostel contained a sign asking us to use it sparingly as the Mekong river is unseasonably low at only 70cm deep. In the North it was a mighty wide river, but when we had a look here it was a pitiful trickle (pictured). Laos has a rainy season from June to September and the water level is currently at the height expected in February. It's a big deal out here though whether it will even make the UK news remains to be seen.

Our top priority was to book a train in Laos. There was only one line we knew of and it was a border crossing. After our previous pleasant border crossings by rail, we were very keen to do this again however trying to buy this ticket was incredibly frustrating. The only tickets we could find online were too late for us to then pick up our tickets for our overnight train down to Bangkok, so we had to ask around. We received many different pieces of conflicting information, such as what time it left, whether it had already sold out etc. so sadly we abandoned our hopes of crossing the separate rail bridge over the Mekong and instead went by bus to the border point.

The crossing itself is very straightforward, disarmingly so. We needed no Visa to enter Thailand, so just queued up, were stamped and then free to enter without being charged. It was simpler than entering a subway in China or even some British museums.

P.S On the Thai side of the border, directly opposite the Nong Khai train station is a library in old train carriages. This made us both very very happy.