Vientiane is pretty much the anti-Hanoi. If I'd arrived in Hanoi in the state I arrived here I'd probably have jacked it all and got right back on the plane however Vientiane is an easy city to explore on just 2 hours sleep (the neighbours had the TV on extra loud last night, then the dogs on the other side went crazy a few times so I didn't sleep much at all)! There are very few things that are similar to Hanoi so it's nice to have a change of scene, and be back in civilization.

I found a pretty decent cheap place to stay in the centre of the city then I headed off to get something to eat. I was anticipating food on the plane but this didn't happen so I was starving as well as exhausted by the time I got here this morning. Was briefly excited to discover that the international terminal at Hanoi airport has slightly more going for it than the domestic one. As well as the usual souvenir tat and Pho shops there was a chocolate shop that stocked Cadbury's and malteasers! The Cadbury's comes from Oz but the malteasers are the real British deal! I didn't feel much like eating chocolate this morning tho so I went off to find the Scandinavian bakery in Vientiane that my uncle mentioned to me. It's really close to my hotel which is good and sells decent baked stuff which helped brighten my mood. I then went for a walk around the city. Have checked out some of the Wats and just ambled along slowly taking the place in. It's a nice city to just wonder along in as it's actually pretty small and not too crowded. The buildings are all really pretty rather than ramshackle and falling down like a lot of the places in Hanoi, and the Wats here look different to the temples back in VN. Here they look more Thai whereas back across the border they have a more Chinese influence. The roads are calmer here too which makes the whole experience more pleasurable. People obey the rules of the road so I can cross a road on a green man safe in the knowledge that nothing is going to drive at me - in contrast a green man means nothing in Hanoi. There might be a bit less traffic but you're still unlikely to have a clear road the whole way across! There is also no beeping! This city is so quiet - it took me a while to get used to it. If someone pulls up to a set of traffic lights and there is a bike or car in front they just sit there patiently waiting for the traffic to get going again, rather than leaning on the horn and somehow expecting the person blocking the way to magically get out of the way even though there is nowhere for them to go other than through a red light!

There are a few similarities here however. There are Wats all over the place, much like the temples in Hanoi that seem to exist on every street. They also have very similar plinky plonky waily music here so not only was I treated to it on the way to the airport this morning I've also been able to hear snippets of it the whole day! It's also pretty hot and humid here too which is a killer when walking around all day. I did succumb to an afternoon nap when the heat was too much to bear, and once I was up and about again I spent the past few hours walking up tree lined boulevards to a monument very similar to the Arc De Triomph. It was a little bit like being in France! The view from the top was pretty cool at not very French though.

Gonna amble some more tomorrow and see some more of the sights, and probably shop a bit too, then the next day I'm getting the bus up to Luang Prabang. I was originally going to get the overnight bus up tomorrow night but that is just a regular bus whereas there is a VIP bus that heads up each morning which sounds far more comfortable and cots hardly anything more than the regular bus. There will be no chickens on the VIP bus either!

Am off to find some food now and enjoy being able to walk freely around a city without encountering motorbikes parked on or coming at me along the pavement/ plastic stools set up all over the place/ people pointing at me and shouting at all their friends to do the same/ animal carcasses being cut up on the pavement/ open sewers/ kids crapping in the street/ any number of other bizarre things that makes getting around Hanoi on foot such a trying experience.