Hi all. We visited two quite different locations today, this being our last day in Vientiane before setting off for Cambodia. Pha That Luang is an important national icon, seen as a symbol of both Buddhism and Lao sovereignty. There are a number of buildings on-site but the most significant is the 45 metre high Stupa. As I understand it - meaning this is likely wrong - every Stupa contains a relic of the Buddha. In this instance, a piece of his breastbone. Le...

A longer than usual walk today - off to see the Patuxai "Victory Monument" in the commercial part of town. (We walked past an ANZ Bank Building on the way). I am lazy so here is another extract from the Lonely Planet:- Vientiane's Arc de Triomphe replica is a slightly incongruous sight, dominating the commercial district around Th Lan Xang. Officially called 'Victory Monument" and commemorating the Lao who died in prerevolutionary wars. It was built in 1969 w...

Today we visited the Buddha Park outside of Vientaine. Here is a quote from the Lonely Planet:- "About 25 klm southeast of Vientaine, eccentric Xieng Khuan thrills with other-worldly Buddhist and Hindu sculptures, and was designed & built in 1958 by Luang Pu, a yogi-priest-shaman who merged Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, mythology and iconography into a cryptic whole." Sounded a bit odd so off we went. Travel options were a return trip by Tuk Tuk for 200,...

No special plans today - our first full day in town. After a nice breakfast in the Hotel we went out walking and sight-seeing. This involves looking at a lot of Wats - they're all over the place. We also walked over to Don Chan, this being a large sandy (sometimes) island adjacent to the main part of Vientiane, on a bend in the Mekong. The land across the river is actually Thailand. Thinking ahead a bit we also sought out and arranged for the next leg of thi...

We finally left Vang Vieng about 2 hours late as the courtesy mini bus that was to take us to the Bus Depot didn't show. It arrived late to pick us up and then meandered around Town picking up other passengers from their Hotels. When we finally reached the Depot we found it was actually quite close to our Hotel and we would have been better off to have walked to it. We would have been able to grab better seats also. The road to Vientaine is, let's say, a wor...