welcome relief after the hecticness of the Old Quarter in Hanoi. It was a lovely place, the sun was shining and we really felt at home here. In parts the city was like a fusion between southeast Asian and French architecture and influences. It was very grand with large tree-lined boulevards, and in parts did almost have a European city feel to it, without the crowds!. We had planned to do all the museums and other interesting things within the next couple of days so it was really nice just spending the afternoon wandering around getting our bearings.

Later on we found a lovely restaurant cum bar more or less just over the road from our guest house and right opposite the Laos National Cultural Hall, which although was a new looking building was still extremely impressive especially when it was all lit up at night and it also had very mesmerising fountains. There was some kind of military event

going on so their were lots of people in uniform buzzing around the place. We sat on the tables outside of the restaurant so we could watch all of the comings and goings and had our first taste of Beerlao which appears to be sold everywhere and in most cases is cheaper than your average can of fizzy pop! So at 30p per half litre you can imagine that a couple of beers with your main meal was rather a nice accompaniment! Laos food was also something of a turn up for the books, it was like a sort of cross between Thai and Chinese and was nicely spiced without being too over the top. We were really starting to feel at home in this place already.

The French-Canadian ladies that we shared the cab with were leaving the next day and they had the best room out of the 2 that were left, so we changed rooms. This room had a lovely big window which overlooked the National Museum, and was loads better as it