Vang Viene to Vientiene

Left Vang Viene in a bus "not even fit to carry sheep" (it's a long story) destined for Vientiene - contender for most laid back capital of the world. Found digs smack-bang in the centre of the city then went to see a show of Traditional Lao song and dance performed by a local youth group, with Katie, one of the Trekking 4. Flower petals were laid before us and friendship bracelets tied to our wrists - everything went well until the end, then horror of horrors, the audience (all 14 of us) were invited to join in the last dance. We eventually got some sort of coordination of the pointy fingers and twisting hands but doing the feet as well was asking too much. Marc said that Katie looked like she was charming a snake and Katie said that Marc looked like an old stoned Rastafarian! The T4 left for Vietnam the next day and we spent the day sightseeing around the city. Vientiene has its own version of the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, although this one wasn't built until 1969 and is constucted from concrete that was donated by the USA specifically to build an airport but they used it for this instead and it is known locally as the 'vertical runway'. We walked across the city to a great big golden stupa - Pha That Luang, the most important national monument in Laos, had a quick mooch about then decided it was lunchtime and took a jumbo (a big tuk-tuk) to a little restaurant recommended by good old Lonely Planet. We ordered Vietnamese spring rolls and a dazzling and bewildering array of dishes arrived. There were mountains of lettuce, fresh mint, coriander and other herbs we've never seen before, garlic, ginger, beansprouts, cucumber, starfruit, noodles, chillies and pork mince kebabs. The waitress could see that we didn't have a clue and came over and made the most perfect parcel of a bit of everything, with a spoonful of lovely sweet chilli and peanut sauce drizzled over the top. We only needed to be shown once - yum!

Next day we left Vientiene bound for Nong Khai, back in Thailand to catch the overnight sleeper train to Bangkok so we could catch a bus to Cambodia. Not much going on in Nong Khai, except that we found another place on the banks of the Mekong that did Vietnamese spring rolls! I enjoyed the overnight journey on the train - no sooner had we left the station, the attendant came around and started turning seats into beds and bunks appeared from the ceiling. I had a lovely big bed with nice white sheets, a blanket and pillow. A curtain pulled over my compartment and I lay there nice and cosy in the dark, the blinds on my window pulled back, watching the stars and listening to Paul Weller on my i-pod til I fell asleep. Things weren't that good on the top bunk apparently - there was light shining in over the curtain, it was more cramped with no window and not much sleep was had. In my defence, I always have to sleep on the bottom bunk as my mother doesn't like me sleeping on the top one as I used to sleepwalk when I was about five.

We arrived in Bangkok (one refreshed and one not) at 6.00am, had a coffee then went in search of our bus to Cambodia which was leaving a couple of hours later. We had a nice comfy and cool bus (absolutely everything was purple, the seats, curtains, floor, ceiling ...) to the border where we went through Thai and Cambodian Immigration and got transferred onto another bus for the journey from Poipet to Siem Reap. Remember what we said about the bus from Vang Viene not being fit to carry sheep? Well this one looked as if it had been carrying sheep for the last 50 years ...