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(Kev)
I looked forward to traveling in Laos. Fellow backpackers raved about it, and the pictures I had seen further piqued my interest. We only had a week though so we had to pick what we thought would be the best of the best. We chose Vientiane, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang , and Hongsa.
We started in the capital (Vientiane) and spent the day walking the river, and exploring Buddha Park. As far as parks with statues go this is the best I have seen. It combines Hindu and Buddhist imagery creating a fantastic looking merger.
Near the entrance of the park, there is a giant pumpkin; it makes me think James and the Giant Peach. While atop the pumpkin I told Daryl and Dust that I was going to go to the bottom to get a picture of them at the top, but I actually got last in the twisted labyrinth inside its belly, and after stumbling around and bumping my head multiple times, I finally made it out...and the picture...wasn't all that great
With the time we had we never really got to get a good look at Vientiane, but the parts
we saw were very nice. Laos was occupied by the French and their influence on the city is very obvious. The older generation still speaks French, and there is baguettes to be found everywhere.
~Kev
(Dustin)
We really moved hard in one day to get up to Vientiane fast so we wouldn't have to waste more than a day getting there. We actually went back into Thailand then up to the border in one day because it was faster than trying to head straight up from Siem Reap to Laos (also the border might not be open). But after lots of bus hopping we made it to the Border by around 2 AM and luckily found a place to stay for the rest of the night. In the morning the border was really close by and they didn't give us any hassle and Daryl didn't even have to have a passport picture even though they say they require them.
But once we got into town and our bags out of the way we went to the Buddha Park, some crazy meshing of the Hindu characters and Buddhist ones. The place was pretty impressive though and
the hardest part about getting there is trying to find the right bus but even that isn't all that hard.
Kev and Daryl decided that night just after we ordered food at some Indian restaurant that they wanted to work up an appetite so they ran across the street to do aerobics with the local ladies in a park pavilion while I guarded the table and stole some of their food when they didn't come back soon enough. For a capital city Vientiane was pretty quiet and relaxed and they have lots of cafes and french influenced cuisine. I'm sure we could have easily spent another day sight seeing but at the time we didn't really find much that captivated us so as usual we tried to make the most of the time we had, as always I was willing to move until there was something REALLY worth staying for in the amount of time we had.
Cheers,
Dust
(Daryl)
I gotta say...when I thought about the subject of "Ultimate Vacation Destinations," Laos didn't make my Top 10 list. When Kev told me how great it was, I believed that it should DEFINITELY top the list.
It took us a whole day to get to the capital city of Vientiane (pronounced like "convention" without the "con") from Siem Reap, Cambodia, but we made it...2 border crossings, 4 busses, and a few tuk-tuks later. The capital city, or what we saw of it, was pretty cool.
Since we were on a tight time schedule, we headed to Buddha Park immediately after getting settled into our guesthouse.
I have no idea what possessed one man to say "I have a vacant lot. I should put random Hindu and Buddhist statues in it." I'm glad he did though, 'cause it was a really cool thing to see, and all the sculptures, combined with Kev and Dust's sense of humor, made for some funny and memorable photo ops. Of all the blogs, this was the most fun to take pictures and make captions for. The statues came in all shapes and sizes. Some were really traditional and huge, like the reclining Buddha. Others were just plain ugly. The Giant Pumpkin was quite strange, 'cause like Kev, I got lost and whacked my head numerous times in the process of getting in and out. I could say more, but
I think the photos do that job better.
After we were done in Buddha park, we had a nice stroll along the river and sat down for some Indian food. The food was pretty good...some of the best chicken I had in a while. As Dust mentioned, Kev and I saw a big ladies aerobics class (yes, both the class and the ladies were big) happening up the road, so we thought it would give us a chance to blend in with the locals...or do a really lousy job of it. The food was still good when I got back, even though the portions were a bit smaller (thanks Dustin). Vientiane was good to us, but it was time to take off to our next adventure, a 6 hour bus ride north through the mountains to Vang Vieng.
With Light,
Daryl
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." - Albert Einstein
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Michelle
non-member comment
makes ya wonder....
I think that all the hindu and buddist gods were having a party when a volcano errupted and covered them all in ash. Glad they didn't pop out of their shells while you guys were climbing all over them! hahaha