7th March – The day went on for ever! Started 6:15am wake up then breakfast of yesterdays breakfast coissants as they were 50% off at Jo Ma Bakery which is a very western cafe. All the diplomats wives were hanging out being dropped off and picked up by their drivers. We saw Wat Si Saket across from the Presidential Palace with very old murals painted on the walls. We walked about 10 km in the city visiting Patuxai the arch de triumphe of Vientaine and had a good view of the city from the top. Walked towards Pha That Laung and got a tuk tuk bargained from 17000K to 8000K. There was a kid cleaning up garbage in the grounds and I gave him a sweet he bowed his head in thanks – very sweet kid.

There were the normal photo guys but what was cool was their method of printing the photos. They had HP printers attached to their moped batteries for power. We took off our shoes at the pha that but we were the only westeners to do this I think the locals visiting appreciated it.

We went by another temple where the monks were saying prayers before lunchand walked into China town by way of the embassies. The US was behind high walls and you couldn’t see in – there is no UK embassy here.

We went into a restuarant called Vieng Savan and had the local speciality of bbq pork ball, lots of lettuce, coriander, rice paper, dipping sauces, garlic, star fruit, cucumber etc. Huge meal for $4 for both of us.

We walked back to the tourist office that was meant to be open till 4:30 but it was closed an hour early so went to the Museum which had Jars from the Plain of Jars. Saved us 20 hours on a bus to see them in northern loas. The museum had 3 rooms about the American imperialists and their puppet soldiers.

As we walked back towards the guesthouse we saw the police pull over a driver. The Loas method – there are police booths at intersections and if they don’t like something you did they blow a whistle and point at the car and the car pulls over!!

After picking up our bags we walked over to the night market and didn’t risk eating there but instead looked at the delacacies of chickens feet, bull hooves etc. Dinner at a noodle shop full of locals for $3.50 for the both of us and then off to the bus station.

We walked towards the bus station and a tuk tuk stopped but wanted 30,000k to get us the last 1.5km we wore him down he took off and then stopped up ahead and decided he would take our 10,000k. We got there an hour before our bus left at 6:30 and bought our ticket for Luang Prabang 100,000k even that far in advance we were number 35 and 36. We didn’t realise it was our seat number and when we got on the bus after watching them load two motobikes on the roof and all the locals boxes and bags there were no seats left…..