Advertisement
Published: October 10th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Buddha Park
((c) http://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/en/5/58/Buddha_Park.jpg) Brochure Text Day 9-10 Vientiane: Explore the highlights of Vientiane including Wat Sisaket (one of the city’s oldest and most fascinating temples), That Luang (Lao’s national symbol and one of its most sacred sites) and the Morning Market (an all-day affair selling virtually everything). Tuesday 9th Another early-ish start. If had been feeling better would have got up before 6am and gone to see the monks collect their alms (saw Vittorio's photos later, looks quite a sight), but need all the sleep possible right now. 7am felt too early, but up, shower, finish packing and up for breakfast. Last check of room and load into an air-con bus to the airport. Checked in baggage - 14.95kg! Gotta post a few things off soon... Sat in small airport - we're about to fly with Lao Airways to Vientianne. It's hot in here - the fans are too few and far between and not fast enough! Oh well...Flight was easy - onto plane and off before scheduled take-off time. Smooth ride and food provided for the 35-40 minute flight! Smooth landing - but our coach pick-up is late by 10 mins. Oh well, at least it gave me time to
find some Halls Soothers! Air-con coach - Vientiene really looks quite different - you can really see the French influence in the Colonial style houses! Into our guest house - toilets don't smell so bad in this one as the last one, and half-hour later we're heading for Joma for lunch! The renowned bakery which Kym has been bigging up for days and kept going to in Lunag Prabang. Safe to have salad there so despite the lush looking cakes (shop reminded me of Costa/Starbucks more than anything else, but with even nicer looking cakes) several had that. I had chicken, cheddar, and salad on 7 grain bread. Seeing Lasagne etc coming up was wondering if right thing but it was NICE!Everyone seperated off - Amanda and I both fancied just 'wandering' so after a quick check in the internet café (no the SD-reader does not work with mini-SD without adaptor!) we headed off for the Presidential Palace - very French... Turned around and there is Patu Xay - the Lao version of the Champs Elysee and Arc de Triomphe! We head towards it stopping in at the 'morning market' (actually all day - although think that may be to
330 in this town!) - fascinating - and clearly divided by type of merchandise: stationary followed by perfumes/fake designer handbags followed by electronics, followed by textiles, etc. Finally decided to buy a SD-card adaptor, bargained down to $15, so was thinking, saved $7 on last night... but would you believe when I got back to the guesthouse, having looked EVERYWHERE, I found mine tucked under my phone - oh well, guess I'll have 2! After a while in there we go to Patu Xay - sit and have a chat for a while and then wander towards Pha That Luang - an especially sacred Buddhist monument. Having found some water - gasping by this time as the sun is really out - we look to go in but it closes in 5 minutes so maybe tomorrow - nice not to feel rushed here!Wander back through more markets, avoid the 'set this bird free' guys and decide may get a tuk-tuk. He offers us for 40,000 Kip (about $4), we know half that is a good rate but they always start high. When we stick with 20,000 he whips out a sheet showing that the 'standard rate' is 30,000 - and
we know there are standard rate tuk-tuks but we note that the Buddha Park is 150,000 and Kym said will be no need to pay more than 120,000 for that! So, we're not too bothered about walking and as we're halfway across the path he says he'll do it for 20,000 (average wage in Laos is $700pa, so it's a good rate for him) so the breeze is very welcome, the pollution not so! Back to the guesthouse where I do some washing, try and work out where I am on my finances and head for the internet café! Finances half done, some internet takes longer than expected (but I do get my previous written entries posted), so will have to do more tomorrow - meantime get back to the guesthouse in time to join the group. We head to the waterfront for a meal - there's a number of open-air restaurants. We realise we have arrived at fair time, so there's plenty to see on the way in. We stop at Joy's Restaurant where I have vegetables with chicken, with water is only 17,000 KIP this time.... Kym and I then decide to pay 10,000 KIP each to go
on the bouncy slide... it's hard work getting up the military-style ladder at the side, but great fun coming down - the second time I come down I am surrounded by local children. Ricky took a great shot, so at some point that will appear here!
After this point, after checking out restaurant options for tomorrow evening, just feel tired, so bit more washing (as always) and to sleep - drugged up with all kinds of things against my cold! Wake in the night feeling rather sick, but it seems to go away...
Wednesday 10th Wake up feeling rough with cold, nausea and all sorts. Get dressed though, and head out for breakfast, then grab the key and am sick. Feel better after that so carry on with my pineapple crepe for breakfast (the honey is attracting the wasps... thought it was just mozzies round here - biting my feet and waist to pieces!). Then we negotiate a tuk-tuk to take us to Patu Xay, Pha That Luang and the Buddha Park - we're not sure if we've got a good deal or not but works out about $3.5 each - for 2-3 hours/25km. The tuk-tuk breaks down
short of Patu Xay, so we get out and wakl the last bit, and say if he's fixed when we're ready, we'll see him outside!
At Patu Xay we pay our 3000 KIP (30cents) to climb the 7 storeys to the top - passing MORE shops on the way up (t-shirts, etc) - worth it for the view down the 'not Champs Elysees'. Back down, the tuk-tuk is ready and takes us to That Luang, where we decide not to go in as we'll probably just take more photos of the same thing from a different angle! Back in the Tuk-Tuk and head off to the Buddha Park. It's quite a long way (about 45 minutes) and the second half is incredibly bumpy (not great when you're already feeling sick!). Arrive there - think it's worth it. Is 5000 KIP to get in, and another 2000 if you're going to take photos - which of course we do. It's baking hot by this point, but doesn't stop us taking some silly poses - Ricky took some of us on top of the onion shaped one, so at some point I will get hold of those too! Back in the
tuk-tuk - an hour back. Into Joma for lunch (a taco salad - have some salad whilst I know it's safe), then lay down for an hour or so - with more drugs provided by John - this time Omeprazole - anti-nausea drug. Think it works but still feeling rough from the cold, but still, I want to get out a bit, so make my way to the internet cafe...
So, found my way down to Camacrafts. Quite expensive but I guess it is Fair Trade. Purchased a tiny purse on a keyring for about $1 which I can use for my gym coins in the future! After observing an open-air aerobics class for a bit (quite amusing) headed back towards the hotel, catching up with most of the group in the pub! Most of us were to go to the French restaurant which specialised in pizzas! (La Provencal) for dinner, so went back to the hotel to drop off stuff, caught up with Amanda and we headed off. 5 minutes later one of the group came to say they were staying on to drink so we went ahead and ordered. I was feeling sick again by this point
but hey ho... Ordered ham/mushroom pizza.. Came REALLY QUICKLY. Was nice but only managed half - but that's tomorrow's lunch sorted! Amanda's steak was rather tough so we paid up (expensive for Lao but about half what we'd pay in our own countries) and headed back to the hotel as I just wanted to crash out... Which I did about 8ish, leaving the light on/door open for Cassandra who didn't realise and knocked about 1030! Anyway - soon back to sleep...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0296s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb