Vientianne - Laos capital

We had not been told great things about Vientiane (pronounced Vienchan - Laos was transliterated into French, not English), however, we were pleasantly surprised by the city.

Vientiane is extremely small, but is packed with charming french cafes with great pastries. We enjoyed latte and pain au chocolat more than once for breakfast.... and had a superd dinner of filet mignon (such bliss as a change from our usual travel diet of only vegetarian food) and red wine at a french restaurant where the service was truly French (I'll leave that one for readers to figure out)

We took a very interesting trip around the Museum of Culture - it presents a very one-sided and very soviet style view of the more recent history of Laos in the 20th century, but it's emotive style is quite understandable (and very sad) given the suffering and pain this small country has been through. Very amusingly, a real favorite of the museum is showing photos and artefacts along the lines of "Here is the toothbrush and haircomb used by Comrade so-and-so the day of his important speech on such-and-such historical occasion".
The city also contains a rather grotty version of the Arc de Triomphe which was allegedly built using concrete donated by the Americans for building an airport. A Although never finished, the view from the top is quite pleasant, and there was some superb tourist tat for purchase (finally found a fridge magnet of Laos for the collection!)
-