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Quiet and Dusty Vientiane

Vientiane Travel Blog › entry 40 of 77 › view all entries

My Backpacking Journey through Southeast Asia at the end of 2006 and into 2007. The ups and downs of my trip and the many beautiful places I visited. Trully an Experience of a lifetime!

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Quiet and Dusty Vientiane

December 8, 2006

at Phonsavanh airport, there was a cow on the runway!!!

There was a cow on the runway at Phonsavan Airport OMG!!!! LOL...

Anyways I flew to Vietiane with Connie and Natalie, and we all shared a room at a little hotel on the riverside. We had our last dinner together on the riverside and watched the sunset. Connie left the following day to head to Bangkok. So it was just Natalie and I left to wander the streets of Vientiane.

The following morning, Natalie and I decided to rent out a motorbike and split the costs to head to Buddha Park, which was located just out of town. I was a bit nervous as first to be responsible for my passenger , as it was literally my second time on a motorbike.

Sunset on the riverbanks

I had only driven a motorbike once before back in 2002 around a local temple in Cambodia and hadn't actually driven long distances or anything! I was very paranoid with the fact that, when you have a passenger on the back, that when it came to bumps on the road I could not support the weight shift as both of us was trying to balance.

Well after a trial drive along the streets, I felt more comfortable and off we went on our journey to Buddha Park. Along the way I managed to avoid all the potholes and was almost at our destination when kablaam!... I had driven right into a massive pothole which was nicely camoflaged with the shadows of the huge trees above. We toppled over and fell to the side and Natalie unfortunately suffered some burns to her leg. We were helped by a local lady who was kind enough to run to the nearby stall to buy some ice and offered us bottles of water.

Buddha Park

We sat around for a while contemplating on whether to continue the journey, but Natalie was paranoid with the burns and wanted to seek out medical assistance. I offered to go back with her as we flagged down a tuk tuk, however she insisted that I didn't need to and continue on to Buddha Park since it wasn't so far ahead!... Oh you don't know how bad I felt... arghhhh the agony!

As she rode off back towards Vientiane I quickly hopped on the motorbike feeling very guilty and bad, as I continued my journey to Buddha Park. Upon arrival to Buddha Park I paid the parking fee and entrance fee and did a quick tour of the park.

Buddha Park was a sizeable area with many huge statues of both Hindu and Buddhist dieties. The park was packed with kids as they were holding some sort of event.

Afternoon stroll

I didn't stay too long as I wanted to head back into town and find out if Natalie was OK.

On the way back to the city, I ended up doing laps around the first four ruins as I kept on getting a few of the monuments mixed up on the map and didn't have a clue where I was going.... arghhh

Here are a list of Wat's (temples) I visited as I headed back through Vientiane;
- Wat Srivilaipanhalalem
- The Pataxiao
- Wat Nong Mon
- Phra That Luang
- Wat Phra That Luang North
- Wat Phra That Luang South
- Wat near Pataxiao
- Wat Sisaket
- Presidential Palace
- Wat Xieng Nyien

Somehow I ended up staying much longer than anticipated in this very quiet, dusty town that the Lao call a capital City due to some minor stomache problems and didn't want to risk needing to go to the toilet while on a 10 hour bus ride down to the south of Laos.

Local kids at Wat Sivilaipanhalalem

The following day, I set out to the markets and the National Museum, as Natalie was heading out to the sites that I visited the day before. The museum itself was in an appalling state, and the actual displays were so, so. It was poorly displayed and needed better organisation and also some renovating.

The day after, I paid a visit to the market once again and bought just a few small things before setting out to Savannakhet on a supposed "VIP" bus, which cost me $14US!!! and later I found out it should of only been $7... arghhh DONT BUY TICKETS FROM A TRAVEL AGENT!!! Natalie wanted to stay in Vietiane for an extra day to get her bandages changed, so we said our goodbyes and went our own ways, hoping that we would cross paths again in the south.

As I arrived at the bus, I found that the so called VIP bus did not have the promised facilities such as the all important toilet!!! (My stomache wasn't too happy over the last 2 days) arghhhhhhh