The first afternoon we decided to head into the heart of the colonial city, visiting the poor man's version of the Arc de Triomphe and the large golden temple that proudly decorates every Kip in the country, Pha That Luang. As well as, of course, finding the local night markets for cheap and delicious food.

Patuxai is a war memorial arch built in the 1960’s with cement donated by the USA intended for the construction of an international airport. It's dedicated to those who fought for independence from the French in 1949 and the Laotian fighters who died in WW2. It remains unfinished, but provided us with a nice place to sit and draw for a little while. We followed to road further north, dropping into a conveniently placed art store on the way. Again in the style of the French capital, the broad boulevard style streets stretched on and on until we reached the gates of the largest Buddhist temple and symbol of the Lao nation, Pha That Luang. It has been rebuilt a few times after unfortunate encounters with air raids and foreign invaders, but it remains in all its glaringly golden glory.

We headed back to our hotel in a well bargained for tuk-tuk and in a few hours headed out to the local night market to meet Russell and another Australian couple we had met in Luang Prabang. To be honest, I felt we were being quite generous with our time after the last meal we shared together (refer to Luang Prabang). As to be expected, his juvenile and desperate need to sit centre of attention made it easy to say farewell. Never again, Russell.

The next day was just as warm as the ones previous, and we spent a good deal of the day getting everything sorted for our Chinese visas. We ventured out around lunch time to visit the COPE centre. COPE is a local organisation that provides rehabilitation and education to those still affected by the rain of bombs dropped over Laos in the Vietnam war. From 1964 to 1973, 580,000 bombing missions were conducted over Laos, making it the most heavily bombed country in the world per capita. This centre has set up education programs and a small museum to shed some light on the results of this statistic and how it affects the lives of children and adults today.

The main problem faced today is the 81 million unexploded ‘bombies’ that lay over 17 provinces. More than 50,000 people have been killed since the end of the war as a result of these, mainly farmers and children. To address the unexploded ordnance that still remains on the ground, a systematic survey is conducted village by village, mapping and slowly clearing hazardous areas. It's a time consuming process, and not without its own risks but change is happening and organisations like COPE are essential to this progress. Our faith restored in humanity, we headed back to the guesthouse, taking an alternate route for a change of scenery.

I'm not really a fighter, and neither is Daniel. But if there’s one thing in this world that we can’t keep quiet about, its animal cruelty. Walking along our ‘change of scenery’ street, we noticed a lady sitting in the air-conditioned cab of a black ute, parked out the front of a giant pet store. Loaded in the back under a sun belting down 37 degrees of heat, lay 7 puppies of various  colours, each covered in fleas, visibly dehydrated and without water, shade or towels. Without a second thought, we both walked into the store and grabbed a bucket of water for them, much to amusement of the staff who looked on as if we were crazy. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the worst of it. Numerous other unlucky puppies lay in black wire cages under the sun, again, without water or shade. A few of them had vomited and defecated themselves and lay completely inattentive in their prisons. It was too much. Daniels voice started to escalate, bringing out a ring of spectators from the pet stores up the street - all of them probably thanking buddha we hadn’t stumbled on their doorstep. I ran from cage to cage with a water dish whilst a woman tried to wrestle it out of my hands. After a minute, the owner showed up. ‘Are you the owner of this place?’ Daniel asked, his disgust and contempt for this monster barely under control. ‘Yes.’ the guy replied. I can’t quite remember what happened next, but I do recall watching Daniels face darken as he stood a centimetre from the guys face demanding that the dogs be given water. Mr owner then grabbed a puppy by the throat, demonstrating how the water damages the appearance of the coat, inhibiting their saleability. So, Daniel grabbed Mr owner by the collar to see how he liked it. It didn’t go down well and we decided that it was time we got out of there before it escalated any further. This is where Mr owner made another mistake, he tried to stop me from leaving. That was it. In a blur of legs and arms, Daniel flipped the guy on his back slamming him into the path. A woman dug her nails into his skin as I tried to get her off. Shirts started to rip, Grazes began to bleed and a cage of innocent yellow puppies almost toppled over as the red faced owner tried desperately to keep a hold of Daniel. We broke away and ran. We ran around the street, up another and jumped into the first tuk-tuk we saw, desperate to get inside closed doors. 

The next few hours were spent icing a swollen knee (after we managed to convince the guesthouse reception man to part with some of his beloved ice), and researching animal welfare groups in Laos. There were none. 

The next morning we couldn’t get out of the city fast enough. It was a relief to get through customs and onto a plane taking us far far away, back to where it all began so many months ago in fact, Hong Kong.