With just one full day in Vientiane, it was a case of fitting in as much as possible.

Our morning was absorbed by an orientation walk with our local guide, taking in the Presidential palace, Wat Si Saket (temple) and the Victory tower.

The temple costs just 5,000 kip (about 40 pence/65 cents) and is well worth a visit. There are alms giving ceremonies daily, in the early morning with flower offerings made by the monks. After that the site is open to visitors from 8am to 4pm with a break for lunch. Inside there are endless opportunities for photographing the 300+ sitting buddhas or the 6840 small buddhas which sit inside the temple walls.

A climb up the Victory gate offers views over the city, although they are not spectacular its a good way to determine the layout of the capital, or if you want to purchase souvenirs then this is the place to go.

A must do whilst in Vientiane, is the COPE visitor centre, which shares the UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) problem in Lao PDR and the work undertaken by COPE (Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise) and the CMR (Centre of Medical Rehabilitation) to provide disability services for people affected. The film they show can be a little heavy on the heart but its important to know how the Lao people have suffered from a war they were not actually part of. It was simply a case of Lao being bombed by the US when targets could not be located in Vietnam; and the dumping excess ordnance all over the country.

I used some of the money raised from a craft sale for charity that I held a few months back to make a donation to this worthy cause, it's also going to mean that I have something unique to include in my scrap (smash*) book from this trip.

The afternoon was spent visiting the famous Buddha park that is located about 25km (40 mins) out of the city; it's easily accessible by tuk tuk (isn't everything!).

The buddha park houses statues of Vishnu, Shiva and numerous buddha's which were the result of designs by a yogi-priest-shaman who merged Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and a few other ideas into one.

This is a bizarre place, but good fun too. It is also the one place where you can pose with buddha statues without posing a problem. You can also experience a climb up into the 'pumpkin' shaped monument at the front of the site which is said to represent hell, earth and heaven. It's not for the claustophbic though and the steps are quite tight... watch out at the top for the climb out and also don't go too far on your way down and past ground level!!

To end the day there was the opportunity of photos at sunset, followed by a walk through the night market to purchase new shoes (my flip flops got left in my 'lost' bag for 36 hours and were rotting!), and finally a beerlao :).