In the morning we went to some caves just outside Vang Vieng to see more Buddah statues. We then travelled straight through to Vientiane - Laos' capital city for the last 450 years. There we said goodbye to Charlie our guide as she was getting the train back to Bangkok.

Our local guide took us on a tour of the city's main attractions such as Patuxai, an arch that it a memorial to celebrate their independence from France. Pha That Luang is a big golden needle shaped monument that is said to have Buddahs collar bone buried underneath it, That Dam another monument and the Presidential Palace. After that he took us to our hotel.

I was staying there for 4 nights as the next Stray bus didnt come until then. I had a chilled out time walking around the buddhist style buildings and visited the night market each night. I found a really nice coffee shop which I visited each day for a nice cup of tea. I went to some nice restaurants where I had western style food each night. I also managed to do some of the essential things like laundry and finding the postoffice etc.

The most important thing was I was feeling much better and looking forward to next part of the tour.

The Thursday morning I went to meet the next Stray bus and met up with some familar faces and lots of new ones. Our new guide was called Yuval (or One) and we had a trainee guide called Simon.

Before we left Vientiane, we were going to visit a charity organisation called Abundant Water. We were the first Stray group to visit them so it was quite special. Abundant water makes water filters out of clay and used coffee (donated from a cafe) and distributes them to villages so they can have clean water to drink. They also teach them how to make their own filters. First of all they gave us a demonstration of how they make the filters. They mixed the clay and ground coffee together in equal quantities and added water. They used a piece of drainpipe to mould the filter and then stuck the two halves together. Next he explained how they work. The coffee is burnt away when it is fired and leaves very tiny holes behind which is how the water is filtered. Then came the best bit, where we got to get messy and have a go at making a filter ourselves. We made a simplier version that looked like a small bowl. Our filters would be fired later and given to the next Stray group to give out on their travels and they in turn would make some more. Before we left they made us our lunch from all the plants and vegetables they had growin in their garden. It had been a really good morning and very worthwhile.