Published: April 6th 2018
Woolly says – It had been a doddle getting into Laos, an hour from the plane to accommodation including buying our visas, immigration, collection of luggage and exchange of money, the money was great, and I am now an official millionaire! Officially the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Laos is a landlocked country in the heart of the Indochinese peninsula of Mainland Southeast Asia, bordered by Myanmar (Burma) and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southwest and Thailand to the west and southwest. Laos traces its historic and cultural identity to the kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao (Kingdom of a Million Elephants Under the White Parasol), which existed for four centuries as one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia, following a period of internal conflict, Lan Xang broke off into three separate kingdoms (Luang Phrabang, Vientiane and Champasak). In 1893, it became a French protectorate, with the three territories uniting to form what is now known as the country of Laos. It briefly gained freedom in 1945 after Japanese occupation but was recolonised by France until it won autonomy in 1949, before becoming independent in 1953. The countries problems didn’t end there and shortly after independence, a long civil war ended the monarchy, when the Communist Pathet Lao movement came to power in 1975 and it became a socialist republic. Our short journey from the airport brought us into the centre of it’s capital Vientiane, having checked in and had an excellent feast I just needed the morning to arrive so that I could start to explore.
Our hosts were lovely and having provided us with our complimentary breakfast and an excellent map of the city we set off.
Woolly says – We had split the map into areas to cover over the next few days, so I was a little surprized to find ourselves at our first port of call within five minutes. Wat Hai Sok is the tallest Wat we have seen with its nine tiers it was tricky to take a picture of the whole building, it wasn’t as fancy as some, but that didn’t detract from the lovely carvings that wound round the base of the roof. Inside was a world of calm and serenity with two large seated Buddha’s and some of the finest artwork depicting Buddha’s life, two monks sat together in the otherwise empty space and not wishing to disturb them I quietly finished looking around and crept back out……. Just in time for the heavens to open. Having sought shelter we stood admiring the drum tower and other buildings from afar as we waited for the water to subside, checking the map I reckoned that our next Wat was probably a good ten minutes’ walk away and as the downpour subsided we made a dash through the puddles towards it.
In less than two minutes we had arrived at the gates of destination number two.
Woolly says – Wat Mixay dates back to the 16th century and according to the guide books it is difficult to miss, as we gave a passing nod to the guarding demons and entered the small complex we couldn’t argue with that, it was yellow, a very bright yellow. The rear view gave a small amount of adornment, but the majority of the building was, yellow. We couldn’t go in which was a shame, instead I spent a few minutes admiring the demons at the gate who looked rather like large green smurfs while Jo and Zoe checked the map.
We’d selected one more thing to cover thinking that it would take quite a while to walk between places, Namphu Fountain was directly opposite us!
Woolly says – We crossed over the road as the heavens opened once again and managed to find shelter under one of the restaurants umbrellas as we contemplated the fountain, I had to wonder what the fuss was about as it was a fairly small reddy coloured bowl and nothing at all as I had imagined with sculptures and water jets from its French heritage, there wasn’t one thing to make it special! I sighed and looked at the women, it was quarter past ten and we had done everything on the days list! Out came the map and we considered our choices, given the steady rainfall it didn’t take long to decide that a trip to the Laos National Museum might be a good course of action, it took longer to look at the map than to get there!
Vientiane has to be the smallest city we have been to, it took four minutes to arrive at the gates of the museum and actually longer to read the sign on the gate telling us that the museum was closed, well it’s us so of course it is!
Woolly says – Not only was it closed but they had moved it, so we couldn’t find it’s new location which was a bit mean. I sighed again and having wrestled the map from Jo’s fingers made an instant decision to head to one of the cities famous stupa’s. That Dam (meaning Black Stupa) is believed by many Laotians to be inhabited by a seven-headed nāga who tried to protect them from an invasion by the Siamese army in 1827. A few moments later as we approached I felt it looked a rather friendly stupa with it’s exposed brickwork and small plants growing out of it, it might be small, but it was quite cute in a stupa type way, we walked around it and admired it from all angles which took nearly three minutes. With nothing else for it we started on what should have been day three’s discoveries.
Five minutes later and we were outside the Presidential Palace, we knew that we couldn’t go in, but our host had told us that it was worth a photograph and it’s grey building was rather lovely, photograph taken we crossed the road and straight onto the next destination.
Woolly says – Keeping my paws crossed that this one might take an hour or so to look at we paid over a few thousand kip each to enter Wat Si Saket which had been built in 1818 on the orders of King Anouvong in the Siamese style of Buddhist architecture, rather than in the Lao style. This may have kept it safe, since the armies of Siam that sacked Vientiane following Anouvong’s rebellion in 1827 used the compound as their headquarters and lodging place. It is considered to be the oldest temple still standing in Vientiane. The cloister courtyard was like stepping back in time, lines and lines of dusty Buddha’s lined the walls some black, some gold and some silver, above there heads were small niches housing tiny Buddha’s. The main temple was simple and refined, we could just make out pieces of paintwork on the wooden frames surrounding it but possibly the best feature was the rear doors which were aged wood and glowed in the erupting sunlight. Inside we couldn’t take pictures which was such a shame as it was beautiful with a decorated wooden ceiling and the most wonderful collection of paintings which were gradually fading away. So plain in comparison to many of the Wat’s but for me it was one of the best.
Realising by now that we were actually going to pretty much complete every tourist sight in the city in one day we crossed the road into the far newer looking Haw Phra Kaew.
Woolly says – Built in 1565 on the orders of King Setthathirath after he moved the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, it’s original use was to house the Emerald Buddha figurine, which Setthathirath had brought from Chiang Mai. It was used as the Kings personal place of worship, and because of this, there were no resident monks in this temple unlike other temples in Laos. The Emerald Buddha stayed in the temple for over 200 years until 1779 when Vientiane was seized by the Siamese General Chao Phraya Chakri and the figurine was taken to Thonburi and the temple destroyed. The Buddha now resides in Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok which we had seen on our first trip to Bangkok. Over the years the temple has been rebuilt many times and now looks nothing like it’s original construction. It looked very grand and had lots of gold paint to admire, the covered veranda surrounded it was of rich red and gold with black Buddha’s positioned at various points. The only remaining part of it’s original form was the lovely doors that had been placed there in 1565 and had managed to survive every onslaught the building had suffered. Inside was a small museum area with cases of Buddha’s of different sizes some of which looked very battered, sadly there was no information about the displays nor could we take any snaps so with shoes back on for the humans and the sun shining brightly we set off for our last destination.
It actually took us fifteen minutes to walk to Laos’s answer to the Arc de Triumph.
Woolly says – Patuxai (meaning Victory Gate or Gate of Triumph is a war monument built between 1957 and 1968. Dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France, it is based on the famous French structure but decorated in a very Laotian way. We admired it as we got closer and closer and as we arrived at its base the décor showed itself to be beautiful with the most stunning of ceilings covered in blue with elephants and mythical creatures. For the cost of a small bag of pistachios we were allowed to climb to the top and take in the cities panoramic view, we stood admiring the skyline and wondering what we would spend the rest of our stay doing having completed everything on our list, time to put the thinking cap on.