A Trip to Laos


Yesterday, we decided to extend our visas to Thailand and to get away from it all for a day. We headed to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. En route, we stopped in Nong Khai, which is opposite Vientiane on the Thai side of the Mekong River.

[Photo of the Day] Wat Sala Kaew Ku, otherwise
known as The Garden of the Crystal Grotto.

A very unusual park featuring many gigantic statues of Buddha Sakyamuni and several Hindu gods is found near the city, so we decided to visit before going to the border. There are variants of the above photo in the photo album of many a tourist who has visited this place (our guess!), and a particularly interesting one can be found here.

A black & white image of an unspecified buddha,
probably Boddhisatva Janguli

As far as we can tell, the image in the above photo is Boddhisatva Janguli, a Buddha from the Nepalese tradition, as she has three faces and six arms -- the latter not pictured here, but part of the sculpture. After Nong Khai, we headed across the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge, the first to span the lower Mekong.

The Mekong River (dry season!!!), view from Vientiane shore

A local tuk tuk (see below if you haven't seen one before) dropped us off at the city market, where we had a rarity of vegetarian noodle soup of the highest quality. Cindy was thrilled, as was Jan, recently on a noodle soup kick.

View from our lunch table at the Vientiane Market

Later we met up with an old friend of Cindy's who runs the Canada Fund in Laos, though we learned that the Fund is apparently closing up shop in this country. We also had a chance roam the city streets for an hour or two. Then, we rushed back to Thailand and made our way back to Bangkok.

Tuk tuk, photographed while rushing
(at 20km/h or so...) back to the border

Comments are welcome!!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 at 11:21 a.m.. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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February 03, 2006 7:38 p.m.

It seems like you had an amazing trip! This chronicle, and especially the pictures, give me the taste to go back again in Thailand. The blak and white picture is great, tought i'd love to see one whit Boddhisatva Janguli and her six arms !

I hope you enjoyed those small vacations !

Marc-André    

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