Vientiane

Another Buddhist temple

Vientiane, the capital of Laos, doesn't boast with a huge number of tourist attractions, but we wanted to see it anyway. Perhaps the thing in Vientiane is that there's actually not much to see or do there. At least for me it was funny to see such a small capital, although it wasn't as small as I had thought after seeing a few photos of it.

Our plan was to find the best way to get to the town of Luang Prabang in northern Laos and to see Vientiane along the way. Our guest house offered a bus trip to Luang Prabang, but in the morning we thought that we could find something cheaper.

We wanted to visit the bus station to see if we could buy the ticket straight from there. The locals were more than happy to show us the way and we walked slowly along the streets, visiting a Buddhist temple every now and then. After walking for half an our or so, we asked for directions again. This time everyone told us to turn back! We wanted to be sure this time so we asked a few more people, and everyone told us that there was no bus station anywhere near us.

We didn't have much choice, and we started walking back towards the center. On the way we visited a car rental office, but the prices were way too high for us. Back in the center we started asking about the bus station again and got a new set of instructions. By reading our map we noticed that we would be walking close to the biggest sight in Vientiane, and that of course suited us. Not far from the very center we saw the embassy of the United States. It looked more like a fortress than an embassy with its huge steel gates and multiple heavily armed guards. I would have wanted to take a picture, but I think they wouldn't have liked it.

The Victory Gate

When we finally made it to the bus station, we were told that it's not the bus station we need! It appeared that there were two stations in Vientiane, and the other one was on the other side of the city. It was a bit frustrating but luckily there were some nice places to see and visit nearby. First we visited the Victory Gate of Vientiane, also known as a monster of concrete. From a distance the gate looks really great, but as you get closer the reality starts to step in. The gate was never properly finished, thus the name "monster of concrete".

There was a small entrance fee to the gate and as we climbed up, we noticed that the gate is like a tiny shopping mall. People were selling souvenirs on each floor and although the gate wasn't painted, it looked quite nice inside as the walls were covered with colorful carpets and paintings. The paintings actually looked so good that we bought a few of them! The prices were really low, so the only problem was taking them all the way back home without destroying them. The view from the top was also nice, and it was easy to see how small Vientiane really is.

At this point we had already walked quite a bit and decided to start heading back to the guest house. There was one thing in the city we hadn't seen though: the Mekong river. We planned our route back so that we could see the river, but there wasn't much to see really. The river bank was under construction and the slowly running dark brown water in the river didn't look that appealing. I was expecting a lot more from this almost legendary river.

At the guest house we bought tickets to Luang Prabang for 150 000 kips each and started waiting for the bus that would leave at 8 pm.

Snakes were a common theme in many Bugghist temples.

Beautiful paintings in one of the temples

Lao National Culture Hall

The view from the top of the gate. Notice the surroundings of the capital.

The park near the gate was a good place for relaxing.

The Mekong river wasn't as romantic as we had hoped for.

Inna was a millionaire!