Vientiane and Photos
There is not actually that much to see in Vientiane and after only a couple of days here, I felt that I had seen everything that I needed to. The guidebook describes pretty much every Wat in the city but, aside from Haw Pha Kaeo and Wat Si Saket, they aren’t really worth visiting. Whereas there was a certain chilled out vibe to Luang Prabang that I really liked, there just does not seem to be anything special about Vientiane. There’s nothing wrong with the place but I’ve decided to move on quickly and am getting an overnight bus down to Pakse this evening.
Here are some photos from the past week.
Sunset on the Mekong - Luang Prabang.
Alms giving in Luang Prabang. Early every morning the monks leave their monasteries and walk in a procession around their neighbourhood collecting alms (mainly cooked sticky rice) from the local inhabitants. It has become a bit of a tourist attraction, and the morning that I went there were almost as many tourists as monks…
A pile of UXO outside the Tourist Information Office in Phonsavanh.
The Plain of Jars - Site 3.
That Foun - a crumbling stupa in Muang Khoun. Chinese marauders tunnelled into the stupa over a century ago searching for treasure buried inside. You can still walk through the middle but it looks like it will fall down very very soon, so you might not want to.
Monks at a museum. These guys were visiting Haw Pha Kaeo at the same time as me. Tourists.
Patuxai - the Lao Arc de Triomphe. It is nicknamed the ‘vertical runway’ as it was built with US-purchased cement that was supposed to have been used for the construction of a new airport. It looks ok (ish) from a distance, but up close (and particularly from the inside) it looks more and more like a multi-storey car park. A description of the monument on a sign affixed to the Southwest corner includes the following classic line: “From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete.”
Sunset on the Mekong - Vientiane.
The Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan). This shot was taken from the top of a what looked like a three storey concrete pumpkin. The Buddha Park is a very weird collection of mid- 20th century concrete sculptures representing Hindu deities and scenes from Buddhist stories, in a field on the outskirts of Vientiane. It is all very odd. Especially the concrete pumpkin.
