Is Vientiane the Canberra of Laos?

I arrived this morning, and slept most of the day. The time difference is only six hours so I’m hoping to avoid really bad jetlag, though I’ll try and stay up to 1am tonight to reset my body clock. I didn’t sleep much on the flight from London and didn’t sleep enough before I left London so hopefully that will help.
So far I’ve met some random people, including a guy who was just in Uzbekistan (working) and a guy who used to work in the newsagents down the road from Mum and Dad’s. I’ve had French buckwheat crepes, a giant rum ball at the Scandinavian Bakery and a beer Lao. There aren’t loads of tourists around but I’m about to go to a bar that’s full of them to read my book and work out an itinerary.
In some ways I suspect Vientiane is the Canberra of Laos but it’s nice to have time to relax before we start travelling and being proper tourists. It’s going to be a mild 28 degrees tomorrow. There might be thunderstorms when we fly into Louang Prabang, which could be interesting. It’s going to be New Year’s on Friday through Monday. I wonder how throwing water on people works if it’s already raining?