Once there I realise it is still early so I embark upon a wander. 'Where you go?' This time from a girl on a scooter. 'I'm looking for a bar.' 'I know a good one, I take you!' Great. I think, more friendly locals. We go, have a few drinks, go back to the hotel, watch some TV and chat and things get pretty friendly. I'm starting to think I like this girl. After a while she asks me to go out and get her some food but half way down the hallway I think better of it and sure enough I return to find her going through my things.

Unperturbed by being caught in the act she demands money for the time she has spent with me and when I express my surprise responds with the statement that 'This is Laos and nothing is for free.' (once again I should have known but I always like to think the best of people). I tell her no and she gets really snotty. In the end I manhandle her out of the room and call the hotel reception to sort her out.

Shame - there are some really nice ladies over here, and very attractive too, but so many others are just out for a buck and will do anything to get it. Of course you never know which they are until they put their hand out. I learn later that it is illegal for any foreigner to have sex with a Lao national so travellers should be very careful indeed.

The next evening my friend from the hotel takes me out to explore Vientiane. Our first stop is a local restaurant where we eat a Laos dish, a kind of soup with various vegetables and quail eggs floating in it. I find it delicious but not particularly filling. It does however keep us going for a little longer.

That evening we play pool at a nearby bar and I get well and truly ripped off. I'm not sure if my new friend has anything to with this or not but it is all quite simply done. A bunch of complete strangers put their drinks and meals on my tab and at the end of the night I am presented with a mammoth bill. The bar staff are getting ugly and if not for a timely rescue by a Swiss guy who has 'seen this scam before' and kindly pays the balance of my bill I may be in some bother.

With my budget blown and my funds gone I have a hungry morning the next day and as there are no money machines in Vientiane that I can find, and no-one can tell me where to find a bank, I end up doing a deal with a taxi driver to take me to the border. There I buy him a bottle of whiskey on my credit card and he gives me his spare change so that I can pay for the bus across the bridge.

Back in Nong Khai again I breath a sigh of relief, track down a money machine, and having retrieved the bike from storage, get the hell out of there, retracing my steps along the route of my outward journey, and giving myself time to investigate in more detail the various towns I pass through on the way.

The only notable event during this day's travel occurs about one hour into my ride when an elderly gentleman, who is travelling on a motor scooter at the shoulder of the road, conducts a sudden ninety degree turn and swerves directly into my path. Under braking the front wheel locks and the bike begins to go down. Somehow I plant both feet on the road and pull the bike back up under me. My feet sting for days. I have a vague impression of a stunned and dozy looking oval face, turned towards me with a semi-comical expression of surprise, but it all happens so fast that I can't even decide whether I passed in front of or behind him.