Day 72: Vientiane
Trip Start
Sep 21, 2006
1
73
228
Trip End
Jun 01, 2007
Vientiane,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Sunday, December 3, 2006
It's Saturday and Lao National Day, so Takat Sao, the Morning Market is thriving, rows of stands selling silks, CDs, and numerous breakfast noodle and grill stalls. I grab a couple of baked sweet potatoes and move on up Th Lan Xang.
Halfway up this thoroughfare is Patuxai, the Laotian 'Arc de Triomphe', built by the French in 1969 in a mix of styles, classical and Laotian. Usually plaques declare the merits of a site, but here the tourist information reads, "From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete." It's not quite so ugly as claimed, despite the grey cement
01 That Dam (Black stupa)
. It now forms a shady spot for cafés, and acts as a gate to a small park with regular fountain displays. Steps inside take you up past a couple of floors of souvenir shops to a fair view over the city, from the Mekong to my next destination, slightly hidden by trees, the golden stupa of Pha That Luang.This symbol of Laos is a 45m-high golden stupa, supposedly holding a relic of Buddha. Around the stupa are cloisters, displaying semi-destroyed naga and stupas, as well as paintings by a local artist I can only generously describe as prolific.
Back towards the river is Vientiane's oldest surviving temple, Wat Si Saket. The walls of the sim here contain hundreds of niches for small silver Buddhas (now replaced with clay replicas), below which are worn, naïve, but charming frescos telling the tale of bodhisattva Prince Puokharabat who fought many battles with his magic fan (staying cool while his enemies fainted from the heat, presumably). In the cloisters around the sim are many Buddhas retrieved from temples destroyed by Siamese armies after a failed attempt to reassert Lao independence in 1828. Wat Si Saket is Vientiane's oldest temple purely because it survived such invasions.
By the Mekong, opposite the presidential palace is a promenade, with a playground and food shacks serving grilled food and crisps. Down the bank are heaps of garbage and mangy-looking chickens
02 Patuxai
. It has, um, potential. I rest here a while and fret about catching bird flu.Just before sunset I dodge the shreds of toilet paper on the way down the Mekong riverbank for the view. The water level is low and there are no fishermen, few attractive landmarks silhouetted, just radio masts and palm trees. I don't bother taking a photo.
The holiday means 'Just for Fun', the place I enjoyed eating veggie food last night is shut. I find myself by the riverbank again explaining that I am 'no meat, no fish, no beer, no friends'. As such, I avoid the grilled frog. The meal I can only generously describe as cheap.
Looking forward to further Asian entertainment treats, I return to the Viet-Lao trade show to browse the stalls of cement and pig feed and watch the innocent stage show.
