Vientiane
The most exciting part of our day was playing, and reading with Eric before we caught the bus to Vang Vieng. So if you're not interested in watching us play with an adorable Lao/American child, maybe you should just skip watching today and come back tomorrow for a more exciting post (maybe) about Vang Vieng- although, be warned, the Lao government has shut down the tubing and the river bars so it might not be as exciting as you- and we'd like!
Buddha Park is also known as Xieng Khuan, or sometimes Wat Xieng Khuan, even though it's not a 'wat' at all. It's a 25 km drive outside of Vientiane, something that I skipped during my last visit, and wanted to be sure to see this time around. The park consists of over 200 Buddhist and Hindu statues, although it's a more compact park than you would expect to hold so many statues- some quite large, as well. Walking through the park, it feels like you're walking through something historical. something old. Not, as Hans snapped me back to reality that the park was built in the 1950's by a priest-shaman who was heavily influenced by both religions that are depicted in the park. The most well known, or perhaps easily identified sculpture is the large reclining Buddha near the entrance of the park.
But the large "pumpkin" also at the entrance of the park was something to behold as well. A large mouth opening lets you into the first of three floors, representing Hell, Earth, and Heaven. Once inside the pumpkin, you can walk around the outer hall and peer into little cut out windows of the respective scenes. I was taking video of "Hell" when I turned my camera sharply and scared myself silly when I saw the guard, spear in hand looking directly at the opening. Yes, a statue scared me silly.
The top of the pumpkin offered a really lovely view of the whole park. We sat in the shade, and took in the view, until I accidentally dropped my lens cap and it rolled down and off the pumpkin, signaling it was time for us to walk down and find it. (We did, just in case you were wondering.)
This dude below might have been my favorite. I have no idea who he is, or what exactly (I'm guessing it's a girl?) he is offering up, and to whom. Again, I'm reminded that I need to study up on Buddhism and Hinduism, especially if I'm going to continue to tease Momma that I'm going to convert. I also was really drawn to this sculpture as well. I mean seriously, what on earth is going on here? It's bananas.
After our 24 hour adventure to Laos, we rolled in thinking a nap sounded nice, but were whisked into the city by Hans and his lovely wife, Noot (I'm totally guessing on the spelling of her name. Should have asked for it when we were there.) She wasn't exactly thrilled to take us out to eat Lao food, because, as she says, "I eat it all the time!" but she graciously obliged. And I'm so glad she did. Lunch consisted of cut up spring rolls, and then meat and veggies (oh lettuce, how I've missed you so!) that you wrap up and dip into different sauces. The peanut was my favorite. They also introduced us to the Lao style of drinking beer- mixed with a little bit of Sprite and ice. Not bad- not exactly Andrew's cup of tea, but I thought it was great! Like a beer spritzer! We lounged around after, played with their adorable son, Eric (easily entertained by rolling a ball back and forth under the bed with Andrew) and then went out for more food! I have to say, there's something satisfyingly cave-man-esque about balling up some sticky rice, scooping out freshly grilled fish away from the bones with your fingers, and dipping it in chili sauce before stuffing your face. Yum.
We could have flown. That would have been much easier than the 24 hours of travel time it took to get from Siem Reap to Vientiane. Flying would have also been much (much) more expensive than our tuk tuk, bus, train adventure. In case you haven't figured it out by now with the expense reports at the end of each post, we're trying to keep to a budget mostly so we can afford this whole year of adventures. The lower the daily average, the more likely we'll last until Thanksgiving of 2013. So deciding between a $250 (at the absolute lowest) flight and a $25 (roughly) day of transit, we chose the latter. Aside from the three hour wait at the Thai side of the border, the day really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Andrew says the three hour wait (it was ridiculously hot) was the worst part of our trip so far… but he wasn't sick on an overnight Vietnamese bus, so I can't agree.
9:00 AM mini-bus ride to Poipet (Cambodia/Thai border)…$5.00
12:00 PM border crossing (longest border crossing of my life by the way)
3:00 PM tuk tuk to Aranyathapet, Thailand for a bus to Khorat…$1.30
6:00 PM bus to Khorat (also known as Nakhon Ratchasima)…$6.86
10:00 PM tuk tuk to Khorat train station…$0.98
11:30 PM train to Nong Khai, Thailand (Thai/Laos border)…$12.02
7:00 AM tuk tuk to Thai/Laos border…$0.98
8:30 AM bus across Mekong River to Laos side…$0.65
9:00 AM bus to downtown Vientiane…$0.75
9:30 AM tuk tuk to coffee shop in Vientiane to call/meet Hans…$0.62
(Unfortunately it seems as though Lightroom lost (or, more accurately, while trying to import my images in an organized fashion I lost) tonight's picture of us trying to sleep in a bright florescent lit (all night long folks) over air-conditioned train car. Sorry, I'm sure this annoys you as much as it does me.)
