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Vientiane
The Presidential Palace- originally built to house the French colonial governor We travelled on with Sam and Matt to Vientiane, the capital. We had heard there wasn’t much going on there, and after spendingtwo days there we would have to agree. We spent our time, for a change, you guessed it, checking out temples and sites. The main street is reputedly modelled on France’s Champs Elysees with the Patouxi monument, at its end, inspired by the Arc de Triomphe, however, the similarities to Paris stop there.
Before catching our night bus to 4000 Islands in the very south of Laos, we took a day trip to Buddha Park, about 27km from Vientiane. This is a collection of massive concrete sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities created by a self-proclaimed holy man as a means to spread his views on life and the cosmos. The sculptures were interesting, but far more fun was watching the local kids on a school outing that was being held in the park. They were performing dances and marches, but mostly just messing around on and in the sculptures.
We arrived at the bus station to embark on our overnight journey to 4000 Islands not knowing quite what to expect from “sleeper bus” we were due
to travel on. We arrived to find out that it was literally a sleeper bus and our two seats were in fact one double bed (well actually 1 ½ single beds). We had no option but to lie down for the whole 12 hours which wasn’t too much of a problem for us as we slept fairly well, despite the bus driver’s speeding and the fact that we woke up in a heap at the bottom of the bed every time he braked. We did, however, feel sorry for the strangers who had to snuggle up for the journey especially the 5 people at the back who got to sleep in one big bed!
4000 Islands is a 14km wide stretch on the Mekong River containing an archipelago of islets, rocks and sandbars. We spend a few days relaxing on one of the islands called Don Khon, passing the time swaying in hammocks, reading books, drinking Lao-Lao (rice whiskey) cocktails and watching village life roll by. We enjoyed the peaceful, rural setting and being able to get an insight into traditional Lao family life. We saw children riding their bicycles to school and playing in the river when school
Vientiane
The Patouxai, Victory Arch was done. They seemed to be allowed to run free and to be let loose on motorbikes as soon as they could walk. Kids were even part of the family businesses from a young age, we had a 5 year old showing us around guesthouse rooms and sitting and playing with us at our table in her family’s restaurant.
Whilst we on the island it was Valentine’s Day and we thought it would be a nice idea to spend the morning on a boat trip to try and spot the islands’ rare river dolphins. We hadn’t quite anticipated that this would involve getting up at 6am to walk 5km to the other side of the island to give us the best chance of seeing them. We did manage to catch a glimpse of these shy creatures but the encounter was so fleeting that during the 5km walk back in the midday heat we wondered whether it was worth it. Not really the romantic outing we had planned!
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