Laos: Vientiane 2010

Vientaine is the capital city of Laos. It is very easy to get around as all the sights ( apart from the Buddha Park ) is in walking distance to the city center where also most of the tourists accommodations are located.

Apart from the fact that everything shuts down around 11.00pm we really liked this city. Lovely old buildings everywhere in the center, nice people and surprisingly calm traffic. There are many European and local restaurants, bakeries so you have a real choice of eateries in the city center. If you plan to continue your journey into Thailand it’s worth buying cigarettes and liquors as it is a lot cheaper than Thailand.

Vientaine map:

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We visited the following sights:

That dam

The That Dam is a large stupa. Many Laotians believe it is inhabited by a seven headed nāga who tried to protect them from the armies of Siam, who invaded in 1827. It is also known as the Black Stupa, the English translation of the Lao name That Dam.

Presindental Palace

The Presindental Palace is located just at the beginning of the Lane Xang Avenue. It is not open for visit however you can take nice photos through the gate 🙂

Lane Xang Avenue

The Lane Xang Avenue is champs elysees of Vientaine. It is the road where many embassies, hotels and shops located. It leads directly to Patuxai. It definitely worth seeing.

Patuxai

Patuxai is the victory gate of Laos, this monument has never been finished even though you can get on top of it for a small fee. There are magnificent views over the city from here. If you want to do some gift shopping this could be the place for you as there are many gift shops on the second the third floor haggling might be a little difficult though…

Mekong River

At our time of visit the bank of the Mekong river was under heavy re-development. The Lao government is building a nice park it was unfortunately half way done… If you travel in 1-2 months time you surely will be able to enjoy this nice recreational area.

Buddha Park

This site is one of the weirdest one we have seen 🙂 Many sculptures crammed into a very small area. Unfortunately we couldn’t take quality photos as I managed to leave the memory card in my laptop 😀 Wikipedia has the following information on it:

“The park was built in 1958 by Luang Pu (Venerable Grandfather) Bunleua Sulilat. Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat was a priest-shaman who integrated Hinduism and Buddhism and later fled from Laos to Thailand after the revolution in 1975. There, he built another sculpture park, Sala Keoku in Nong Khai.

The statues are made of cement and are ornate, and sometimes bizarre, in design. The statues appear to be centuries old, though they are not. There are numerous sculptures of Buddha and characters of Hindu lore. There are also sculptures of humans, gods, animals, and demons. One notable sculpture resembles a giant pumpkin. It has three stories representing three levels – Hell, Earth and Heaven. Visitors can enter through an opening which is a mouth of a 10-foot-tall demon head (3.0 m) and climb staircases from hell to heaven. Each story contains sculptures depicting the level. At the top, there is a vantage point where the entire park is visible. Another sculpture, an enormous 40-metre-long reclining Buddha, is also a park attraction.”

The park is about 20km out of the city so you either rent a motorbike or take a tuk tuk or a minibus. If you decide to drive prepare for the shitty road conditions at the last 2km. It is really a disappointment as at the beginning you driver on a 2 lane road, then on a regular one, then on a dirt road… but hey this is Laos for you 🙂

Note: There is no way to get free city maps at your hotel in most of the cases. We paid 10.000 Kip for a map. This applies to other parts of Laos as well. If you manage to get a free map it is a bad quality photocopy and most of the time given by motorbike rental companies.