Vientiane

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Our time in Vientiane was short as we aimed to cross the border the day after we arrived. Despite this we still managed to cram in a few things.

First we visited the Buddha Park, a field full of concrete Buddhist statues, with an enormous reclining Buddha statue. This was a quirky little place, made better by the entertaining bus journey there. We are by now used to people's reactions towards us when we travel on public transport, the usual stares, smiles and attempted conversations in the native tongue. But for once it wasn't us who were centre of attention. A particularly large child got on the bus with his mother and immediately became the focus of amusement. We felt a little sorry for the boy who was poked and prodded and had his cheeks pinched! It was a strange situation, where you felt like these people had never seen a fat person! Good job some of the other tourists at the Buddha Park weren't traveling by local bus really...

After the Buddha Park we stopped at Pha That Luang. This is an impressive gold monument and the national symbol of Laos. We strolled around the grounds and had a look inside the adjacent Wat That Luang Neua.

The next morning we crossed the border within an hour of leaving for it! This felt like a dream with the last few border crossings we'd experienced in mind! We were sad to have left Laos as we had some great times, the people were so friendly and the scenery was spectacular.

Back in Thailand, we remembered why we had fell in love with it the first time round and it wasn't long before we spotted the familiar face of the King (everywhere!!) - To quote a friend we met a month back "It felt like we were home again!"

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