Laos: Vientiane

  Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Sunday, May 6, 2007

 Well eventually I made it out of Bangkok. Mini and Di came back from their week at the Full Moon Party and we all got ourselves bus tickets and headed to Vientiane. I've been looking forward to getting to Laos since I got to Vietnam. Everyone I have met along my trip has raved about the place, well except for one guy I met in Phnom Penh who didn't like it here. But then again he was from Vancouver but hated people from Vancouver so he lived in London and couldn't wait to get home because he missed working out in the gym!!!!!What a dipstick.

03. I still reckon Minis mouth is bigger

So we got here nice and early in the morn after our overnight from Bangkok. Vientiane is Laos capital city but its not something that you would know by looking at it. Arriving in, the place seemed empty, now we were expecting it to be quiet in the sense thats its low season so not as many tourist but there didn't even seem to be that many locals. In fact there was nothing in Vientiane at all that made us want to stay more than a day or two. Which is exactly what happened.

We booked ourselves into a decent hotel and went for a wander. The city itself is covered in hotels, bars and street side eateries.

06. Views from the top of the peach

And the lack of tourist makes it feel more like a small town rather than a city. Probably fortunately for us everything in Laos shuts by11.30pm so whatever you want to do weather it be drinking, eating or watching a film ya better get it done early. I wasn't too bothered by this as it meant a few decent nights sleep, early to bed early to rise all that sort of thing. So the first day was spent walking and getting ourselves a nice massage to finish the day off.

The main tourist attraction in Vientiane is Buddha Park. Its around 25km from Vientiane. It was built in the 50s by a guy who claimed to be the disciple of a cave dwelling Hindu hermit in Vietnam (according to the book anyway). The park is covered in concrete statues and figures representing Hindu-Buddist teachings. At the entrance is a massive concrete ball with a concrete dead tree sprouting out of top of it. Twas like something from James and the Giant Peach. Crawling inside you can climb to the top via a spiral staircase but along the way you pass the representations of "the 3 planes of existence" although I have to admit it just looked like a bunch of

02. Buddha Park: The Giant Peach

leftover statues just bundled into the thing to me.. Also in the park is a giant Buddha as well as other equally interesting statues.

After visiting here we waited to catch the local bus back into town and booked ourselves a ticket to Vang Vieng the next morning.