Vietienne

Based on what everyone who's been here has been telling us, we've been looking forward to Laos for a long time.  Unfortunately spending a few days in Nong Khai has conditioned us for the calm and peaceful lifestyle we've been looking forward to so coming to the hub and bustle of Vientiane has sort of spoiled it for us.  It isn't a clean city and we are finding it quite expensive compared to our expectations (more so than Northern Thailand).  We didn't have any problem getting here but we are learning that the Laotians have long since thrown away their communist lifestyles and have embraced capitalism (price what the market will bear) with a vengeance!

The first place we wanted to stay at was full up so we got our minivan driver to drop us at another by the banks of the Mekong (looking at Thailand).  Thailand was neat and clean in comparison.  There are lots of instances of the old French influences, but its also got lots of Soviet style drab built in as well.  We did a tuk-tuk ride to the most famous Stupa (kind of like a burial mound for trinkets - and sometimes bodies) Pha That Luang.  Its the definititive tourist draw in Vientiane and its SUPPOSED to look like this.

Pha That Luang as it is supposed to look.

I didn't have the heart to take a close up of it.  Sorry for the water spots..  I picked those up in Thailand somehow and have been at a loss as to how to remove them.

In reality, it's very run down and we wondered what all the fuss was about.  We were charged 5000 Kip for entrance and there is nothing to see..  you wander around the interior of the thing (just inside the walls) and all the spots that were supposed to hold artifacts are all empty.  There are cracks in the walls that need urgent attention and the gold paint is full of mold.  This is probably the most optimistic version I could present as to how it actually looked.  Notice how the sky is grey!  We have yet to see a blue sky here even without any clouds!  The haze/smog makes L.A. look like Eden.  So much for our bad North American pollution!  This is one of those sites where you'd be better to take a picture of it at night under lights.

There are some nice looking Wats around there as well but a real lack of signs and no guides made it hard for us at the time to understand how important they are to the Lao.

They were filming some sort of a music video... a local dressed up to the nines dancing to music in front of this.  

Wat That Luang Tai

The ladies showing their respect for the local customs

Wat That Luang Neua 

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Wat That Luang Tai (how appropos!)

I've got no idea...

And here's..... Budda!

Wat That Luang Tai

We also went roaring by Patuxai, their version of Paris's Arc Du Triomphe.  It was built from cement the American's donated to Laos for building an international airport - hence the nickname, "The Vertical Runway".

I don't really think it is leaning like that... we were doing about 70mph in a Tuk-Tuk when we roared by on two wheels so this is as good as we got.

I didn't take any shots of the more run down parts of Vientiane as that wasn't a part that I necessarily wanted to remember but we were somewhat disappointed in the place and arranged early transport out to our next stop at Vang Vieng.  I don't want to say that we didn't enjoy it but one day was enough for us and we were happy to move along.