Ok, that sounded like a
big build up to something, but we actually didn’t do much at all. It’s a nice
enough city, but nothing to get too excited over. We say it time and time again
but rarely listen to our own advice – capital cities are usually not that
great. On our first day, we just walked around to a few nearby temples – Wat Si
Saket, Haw Pha Kaeo and Wat Si Muang – which were all reasonably nice, but
nothing we hadn’t seen before, and then went to the COPE visitor centre, which
was probably the most interesting thing we did that day (and it was free!).
The centre contains lots of information
and videos about the bombing of Laos during the American war in Vietnam. Shockingly,
Laos (which was wholly neutral during the war) is the most heavily bombed
country per capita in history, with over 580,000 bombing missions conducted
over the country. And unfortunately this atrocity can't just be swept into the
past, as 30% of the bombs dropped failed to detonate on impact, leaving
approximately 80 million pieces of unexploded ordinance (UXO) scattered all
over the countryside, making this a very real problem for present-day Laos.
Even now, many Laotians are killed every year by UXOs, either by accidentally
triggering these bombs, or from trying to collect them for scrap metal.
The COPE centre was very interesting,
especially watching the testimonies of families who have lost children to these
UXOs. They also do some great work manufacturing prosthetic limbs for some
of the victims of these bombs. Certainly a place I'd recommend.
The next day (which was
also our two year anniversary, swit swoo!) was a bit more eventful, not a lot
more, but a bit. We rented out bikes and spent most of the day cycling around
the place. Despite it being a capital city, it’s not very big and traffic is
very manageable, so we didn’t have too much hassle getting to see everything we
wanted. The main attraction around town is Pha That Luang, which is like the
national symbol of Laos, but it really wasn’t that great at all. It was just a poor
man’s Shwedagon Pagoda.
And while Shwedagon Pagoda was like a
flawless, golden spire, this just seemed shabby and plastic. That was the thing
about Vientiane, not only did it have very little that we hadn’t seen before,
but we had seen much better versions of all these things elsewhere!
 |
| Pha That Luang (Laos) |
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| Shwedagon Pagoda (Myanmar) |
Afterwards, we finished off our cycling tour, taking in a
few more smaller temples along the way, passed by Patuxay (which was just like
a Laotian Arc de Triomphe), and then to treat ourselves, we went off to the
jungle for a nice traditional massage in a stilted wooden hut. A far cry from
Hoi An, where we got our own personal masseuses sent up to our fancy hotel
room!
And that night, for our special anniversary dinner, we
celebrated in style with a nice romantic dinner at Pizza Company! I know it
sounds quite underwhelming and unspectacular, but we were delighted. It’s our
favourite restaurant in South East Asia! We’ve been to a few of them around
Thailand and Cambodia, but we didn’t know there was one in Laos until we
spotted it randomly during our cycle tour. And it turned out to be just around the
corner from us all along! Who knew?!
The next day, and our last in Vientiane, we had planned to
have an early start, with the Buddha Park and a nearby waterpark on our agenda
for the day. Unfortunately, as we got up, the rain came down, scuppering our
plans. The waterpark had to be written off completely, but luckily the rain
eased up a bit in the afternoon, giving us a small window to travel out to
Vientiane’s Buddha Park.
I know I said that Vientiane had nothing that we hadn’t
seen before, but the Buddha Park was the one exception to that rule. It was
surprisingly good fun! It’s basically, as the name suggests, a big park filled
with Buddha statues – big ones, small ones, sitting, standing, reclining,
multiple heads and arms – every type of Buddha you could imagine!
I have no idea what this guy is meant to be...
So, we just chilled out there for an hour or
so, taking pics, hanging with the Buddhas, and we made a rather rushed video diary too!
And that was it for Vientiane! We got our
fill of Pizza Company once more that afternoon, and that set us up nicely for
our classy night bus to Luang Prabang.
And that's where I'll pick things up next time!
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