Vientiane, Laos

---

Feb 8, 2008

Vientiane, Laos

Arrived here on a very short flight from Lung Pabrang. This is the capital city of Laos and we were quite surprised as it is a very quiet city. Took a short city tour on our way from the airport and spent the afternoon with a short walk to visit the small center of town.

Feb 9, 2008

We were picked up by our guide early and started a very busy day visiting the local sites and a local shopping mall and market. Visits included maybe the most famous national monument in Laos, the Pha That Luang, a very large golden Stupa. This Stupa is said to contain some of the most important relics of Buddha that were brought to Laos from India. This monument is shown in almost everything you read about Laos. We also visited the former Royal Temple which is now a museum, Wat Si Saket and the Patuxai , a very large arch inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris but with Lao motifs. Vientiane is a very interesting a culturally rich city with many large wide boulevards and flowered streets.

In the afternoon we took a short but very bumpy ride to the outskirts of the city to visit a National cultural Park and Wat Xieng Khuan ( Buddha Park). The cultural park leaves a lot to be desired as it is in a bad state of repair and a lot of projects are underway to improve things. The Buddha Park is very interesting. This is a park that was privately built with donations from the public and contains hundreds of large and small statues of Buddah and other religious items. It is built on the banks of the Mekong River a short distance to the Friendship bridge that connects Laos to Thailand. ( our trip tomorrow )

We finished the afternoon with a walking tour of the park along the Mekong River near the center of town. This park is full of local restaurants serving salted fried fish, and all kinds of BBQ’d and local dishes. One feature is the small restaurants that put new meaning into the word RESTaurant as they provide a place to lay down with a mat a pillows to enjoy your meal and a beer and have a rest. The Mekong River, at this time of year, is still very large but gets a whole lot bigger in the rainy season with an additional up to 10 meters ( vertical ) of water. From here it was a short walk to our hotel in the center of town.

Laos is a very interesting place to visit but with a very small economy and few people ( 5 - 6 Million total country ) it is a tough go for most of the locals. We get the feeling that things are vastly improved from a few years ago so I guess they are going in the right direction.

---