On arriving in Vientiane, the first thing we did was get some food, I was shattered! We found out that Vientiane was hosting the National Boat Race, so there were loads of market stalls and fairground rides to see. Vic and I bought a really tasty sandwich from a stall, it had an ingredient which looked like cotton, but later found out to be really thinly shredded pork, really good!

We had a lazy day on Saturday, went on the internet and went for a massage. It was great, but it hurt a bit! We got some more food, went around the festival and fun-fair, then met two Lao ladies who showed us a decent bar to go to. We were introduced to some nice people and even met some of the people from tubing again. We left with a couple of the girls to enjoy the festival by the Mekong River, which was the Buddhist festival of Bun Nam (end of Buddhist Lent). We had a great night, going on some rides, having a go at some of the games, and enjoying ourselves into the night.

The next morning I met up with one of the girls, Joy (her nickname), who made me a nice Lao-style lunch. I met up with Vic a bit later to catch the final of the Boat Race, and we just chilled for the rest of the afternoon. Our evening meal was really good! We had some Korean food, mmm, tasty! Later we went to the bar from the night before and bumped into one of the girls from our slow-boat trip. As it turns out, she's doing a very similar trip to me, and actually arrives in Chile the day before I do, no doubt we'll bump into each other again at some point.

The next day it rained and rained, so we did some more sight-seeing. We saw a monument called Patuxai, which is Vientiane's very own Arc de Triomphe replica. It commemorates the Lao who died in the pre-revolutionary wars and was built in 1969 with cement donated by the USA for the construction of a new airport. Lao-style for kindly telling the US, "Thanks, but no thanks".

Later that afternoon, we took a plane from Vientiane to Hanoi. There was hardly a soul in the Vientiane airport, the most relaxing one I've ever been in! We strolled to our departure gate and took the uneventful one hour flight to Hanoi.

Soon we'll be picked up by our bus running from Hanoi to Hue. It takes 14 hours overnight for only $9, bargain!! Fingers crossed, I'll update the stuff from Hanoi when I get to Hue.