Larn, our friendly young chap from Sabaidy 2 comes from Savannakhet, so of course we had to visit his home town. Bus trip here took just on 5 1/2 hours so we arrived in plenty of time to get checked in (Nong Soda guesthouse by the riverside - just for a change - US$9 for a/c (not needed) and hot water) and off to the Dinosaur Museum.

Yes, dinosaur museum . Evidently the french found some dinosaur bones in Savannakhet province back in the '30s and in the '90s they had a big expedition where they found a whole heap of bones, including the complete tail of a wee beasty. Very different and quite cool. Can't remember the last time I'd looked at dinosaurs, and Kristina never had so definitely worth the 5000kip each to take a look.

Savannakhet had a bit of a different feel to it from Pakse. It's a bit bigger and feels like it has reached that magic level where it stops being a large town and turns into a small city. Not quite as charming as Pakse, but quite ok anyway. They just happened to be opening the new bridge over the Mekong to Thailand the day we were there, so we turned on the tellie and took in some Laos culture with the inauguration ceremony.