Vientiane, Laos

The three-hour ride from Van Viang to Vientiane was uneventful.  There were rolling hills and roads but nothing like the more tortuous ride from Luang Pragong to Van Viang. 

Here are some typical photos along the way

Typical view at side of road

Cattle grazing in dried rice fields

School yard, children arriving on bikes

Recently burnt rice fields

Houses get bigger as we got closer to town.  Away from river, so no real need to be on stilts.

Stores below and home above

Vientiane is right on the border with Thailand and on the Mekong River.
The city is the home of the massive gilded stupa, Pha That Luang,the most famous Buddhist stupa in Laos.

The capital of Laos was moved from Luang Prabong in the north to Vientiane in 1563, possibly because of the fear of invasion from Burma.     It probably has over half a million people today. The original was built in 1566 by King Setthartirath, and was restored in 1953. The golden stupa is 45 meters tall and is believed to contain a relic of the Lord Buddha.

Entering Vientiane, we see a tuktuk with stupa behind.

We stayed in Vientiane overnight, went to several sites the next day, and then separated from the group as we stay in town and they take an overnight train back to Bangkok.

That night we had a farewell diner.  Kakada took us to a traditional Laotian place we would not have found on our own.  I smiled at the creative spelling in part of the the English translation of the menu.

I figured out that fruit "shark" was really fruit "shake."  I'm not sure about "Spy" wine cooler though.

My son Avi helped me figure out "roasted" fish and pork "rib."

Here are some photos of people at the final dinner:

Sarah and Mark

Kakada with a nice smile

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Cats were also in the restaurant...and a few dogs

In the morning, we went to Wat Si Saket and  Pha That Luang which were across the street from each other.  And we also went to the COPE center, which was by far the most impressive of the three and one of the most impressive places we visited on our trip.

First we went to Sisaket.  The entrance fee was covered by our tour, but you can see that they were 2000 kip (25 cents US) for Lao and 5000 kip (65 cents) for foreigners.  The site is open daily from 8 to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.

The sign below says in English:  "The Sisaket Museum was built in 1818 A.D.  during the reign of King Anouyong, the last king of the Lao Lanexang Kingdom (Vientiane) after construction completed it is about 10 years the foreigner has agression and destroyed the Lao Lanexang (Vientiane) and restoration in the same architecture style.  Sisaket Museum has restoration in 1935 A.D. as we have seen at the present."

Main entry into a huge area

Signs on the wall explained the following:
 Vat Sisaket was built on the order of Anou, the last king of Vientiane, between 1819 and 1824.  It was located near the royal palace in the center of the city.   There was a war with Siam going on and from 1827--1828,  the Siamese razed Vientiane and forced most of the people into exile across the river.  All the temples except this one were destroyed.   It is the only wat in Vientiane which has survived in its original form.  Are the gornds are a number of well-preserved structures including:
--the library where buddhist texts were kept
--kuti, the sleeping quarters for monks and novices
--the stupa or commemorative structures (of deceased)
 -- the cloisters, a rich collection of statues of Buddha
--a sim, with the oldest murals in Vientiane

Many of the statues of Buddha were destroyed and are now collected in piles or in rows.  Here are some:

The Sisaket sim is unusual in that it faces south instead of east, and that it is not parallel to the course of the river, so it follows neither the Lao or Buddhist traditions.

The sim is a single room encircled by a verandah and a double row of columns.  Eight sema, stone markers, fix the limits of this sacred space.

The ceiling is decorated with relief moldings.  Inside each geometrical figure are nine pendants symbolizing lotus flowers. This was a new form of decoration for Laos in the early 1800s although Siam had used it from the end of the previous century.  It is similar to ceilings of the chateaux of the Loire Valley in France.

The walls are carved with many niches, which originally contained hundreds of cast silver Buddha statues, recalling the miracle of Sravasti.  The niches now contain gilded clay ones.  I was astounded by these.

The niches lined the long walls--very impressive

Some of the gold is still on the clay

Between the windows, large fragments of the original murals have survived of the illustrated story of Prince Pookharabat who won many battles.

Stupa with a picture of the "resident" on it

Close up of picture of people in stupa

Haw Phra Kaew (Hophrakeo) is a former temple in Vientiane near the Wat Si Saket, built in about 1556 to house the Emerald Buddha (which is now in Bangkok).   Hophrakeo is much smaller than the temple in Bangkok that houses the Emerald Buddha.

As in all religious shrines, we had to take off our shoes.  And they were always in the same place when we returned.

Amazing wood carvings from tree trunk in the surrounding garden area:

Most areas are very clean with very little litter.  People sweep up litter/yard waste, put it in piles and burn it, like what you see above.

Some pretty flowers in the area:

Note bug on the petal

Our next stop was the Great Sacred Stupa (Pha That Luang) and by that time I had had enough of religious sites.

Several people were carrying birds in cages.  The birds were for sale for pilgrims who would then release them at the site, a sign of good luck.

Wat Pha That Luang (The Great Stupa) is a huge gold covered stupa in the center of Vientiane.  It probably was first made in the third century as a Hindu temple and has been redone several times since then.   You can read a bit about it at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pha_That_Luang

Buddhist monks taking pictures to remember being at this wat

The huge golden wat

 

Pictures of a ceiling on the wat area:

A shrine outside of a Pharmacy

Marcy enjoying another fruit drink (watermelon?) with ice, not milk as many are

 There is a local newspaper in English called the Vientiane Times.   Here are two articles I copied.  I found the way that social issues were approached was fascinating.

 You can read the newspaper at:  http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/

Before traveling, I was quite concerned about having the right adaptors for plugs.  In most places, we did not need adaptors as the plugs took both US style and Asian style plugs.  I did take some Israeli adaptors that were the same as the plugs in SE Asia.

We spent one more day in Vientiane after saying goodbye to our group. See my other blog entry about our visit to COPE Laos, the highlight of our visit to Vientiane.

Then in the afternoon, we caught a flight to Hanoi.