During my 52 km Tuk-Tuk ride today I had a lot of time to enjoy all that is Vientiane and the more I see the more I like. Laos has been really growing on my since the moment I walked across the border…
The reason for my long Tuk-Tuk ride was to visit Buddha Park, also known as Xieng Khuan, a park that contains over 200 Hindu and Buddhist statues that was built in 1958. 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 (above image). It has three stories representing three levels – Hell, Earth and Heaven. You enter through an opening which is a mouth of a 10 ft tall demon head and climb staircases from hell to heaven, not an easy task… At the top you have a vantage point of the entire park which also gives you a great look an enormous 40 m high reclining Buddha.
This by far was tops the list places visited in the past few months. Granted it only lasted 20 minutes, but there was something about this park that reminded me of Angkor Wat mixed with a Picasso painting at the National Museum Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Just beautiful.
I invite you to check out all the images below, as everyone is unique in its own way.
The French still play a big role Vietnam and Laos today, from food, to signs, to monuments… It’s pretty interesting to see even after years of these countries being free from France that they still adopt some of what the French brought over.
Yesterday (before the illness) I went on a walk about town. First I visited “The Patuxay” which is a monument in the center of Vientiane on Lan Xang Boulevard (meaning Grand Avenue) and often referred to as the”Champs Elysées of the East”. The monument was dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France and was built in 1960′s. Although bearing a general resemblance to the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, it is typically Laotian, decorated with many kinnari figures. And get this, it was built using American funds. The US had given Laos money to build a new airport, however the Laotian government of the day used the money to build the monument instead.
And in the pics below you will see the “That Dam” which is a large stupa. Many Laotians believe it is inhabited by a seven headed dragon who tried to protect them from the armies of Siam, who invaded in 1827. You can’t make this stuff up.
Now I don’t usually give personal shout outs on birthdays but since this is also a Blog Craver business blog I thought this was one B-Day that needed to be recognized. Ron has gone out of his way to help us behind the scenes during the beginning stages of BC and we can’t thank him enough. So I wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday and to say thank you for the continued help with all of our blogs. Oh and yes that’s us drinking Dom during his last birthday in Portland. You can check out Ron’s personal blog here.
Welcome to Laos. After another long day of travel I’ve made it to the capital city of Laos, Vientiane. I am now a traveling party of one and this is actually the first time I’ve gone off on my own…and what an experience it is. Just knowing that I’m now responsible for everything, everyday was a bit hard to swallow at first, but sometimes you’ve just got to press on. Tomorrow I’ll get out in city more but since there are a few of you that like to see what the places we stay at look like, check the photos in the gallery below. $14 USD a day with free breakfast and wifi…
Since I have been plugging products lately I might as well give a huge shout out to the one and only extremely inexpensive Asia airliner, Air Asia. Time and time again these guys come trough with unbelievable prices including: $11 to Langkawi (Upcoming May Flight), $15 to Bali (Upcoming May Flight), $115 to Melbourne (Upcoming June Flight) and today $30 to Bangkok. So if anyone is looking to do some country hopping while they are out in Asia check AirAsia.com out as it is usually the same price as taking an overnight bus/train, just without all the hassle. (You’ve seen the videos on this site, no more of walking back to my bed to find people sleeping in it.)
Who knew… Who knew that having 47 Kilograms walk up and down your back and the beat crap out of you for an hour would solve all of your problems, oh and a little bit of Tiger Balm too…. What a difference 24 hours makes! Finding out that not only does Tiger Balm fix all muscle aches but it’s also this magical balm that fixes bug bites, bad eye sight and crooked teeth. This all mixed with a 250B Thai Massage as the sun was setting… I feel like a Justin…ready to conquer Bangkok all over again. Until then…I bid you a good day.
This post is going to be cranky, well because, I’m as crabby as you can get right now…so feel free to go another fun post if you don’t want to hear me complain. Here, this is a great post….
OK… So I’m officially fed up with the bug bites… I don’t get it… I put on deet spray and they eat right through it. But the best part is that they only go to town on my hands, knees, elbows and feet… Joint skin seems to be their game, and I’m not having any of it… I’ve lost count of the bites after I hit 50… Sigh… I know… I know, I know… There are so many bigger problems going on around the world and the one thing I have to complain about is bug bites… I’m sorry, but like I said I’m just crabby today…
If it makes anyone feel better, I’m completely burnt all over because of this… Trying to sleep has not been fun. But at the same time, I seemed to be extremely efficient at work today…
Today I wanted to share my love of Heinz Chili Sauce. I had so much of this amazing condiment the last time I was here I got sick… But I learned my lesson and this time around I’m using it sparingly… Why they don’t have this in the States is beyond me, but Mom, just as an FYI, you might be seeing a box at the front door in the coming days, you can guess what the contents will be.
P.S. I’m not upset in this photo, I just walked 5Km in 90 degree heat, thats all.
I wasn’t really going to bring this up, but meh… I’m sharing everything else… So I crashed my moped the other day… Nothing big but I did lose control and fall off my bike. Sound familiar? Yes, the same thing happen while riding a jet ski in Cabo last summer… But the reason I’m bringing this up is because this crash really messed with my head.
The prior few days I would jump on and drive 60-80km everywhere and not think twice about it… Instantly after this fall I became overly cautionary with every turn and lost complete confidence in driving. But the thing was we live 7km from downtown and that meant I still would have to use the moped to get around… Not giving up…It took almost three full days to even feel comfortable again on the bike and it wasn’t until late this evening on a ride around the island that I gained the confidence back.
Such an interesting experience in a short period of time… But I guess I just re-learned to trust myself…
OK enough about that sappy stuff…We also rented jet skis today… definitely on the list of things to buy when I move back to PDX.
But: The Dodgers??