I woke up early to catch the one flight to Vientiane from Phonsavan. The airport was more of an airstrip with a little waiting room than a proper airport. But the flight was deliciously short–only half an hour! We took off, the flight attendants did a sweep through the cabin passing out water and snacks, and then suddenly we were on the ground again. I can’t express how happy I am that I didn’t take the sleeper bus. Flying is where it’s at.
I am staying at a lovely place here called the Dhavara Boutique Hotel Vientiane. I feel like a 19th century ambassador. The decor evokes the era. My room is massive and the bed is doubly massive, with antique furnishings and everything. I love it. And it looks like there is the cutest little french bakery downstairs next to the lobby of the hotel that also sells macarons. The hotel staff even left a pair of sweets for me in my room this evening. Oh I like it here.
Since I’m right in the center of town, I thought I’d walk around a bit and get my bearings (per my usual habit). It’s quite a lovely city. There are lots of trees lining the streets and a few larger boulevards here and there with some big monuments–in other words, it feels very European. There’s even an arch that travelers I’ve met call the “fake arc du triomphe”–this is the Patuxai monument on the Avenue Lane Xang. I haven’t seen it up close yet, but saw it in the distance as I walked along the Avenue Setthathirath to see a few temples nearby.
Avenue Lane Xang with the Patuxai monument or Arc du Triomphe de Vientiane at the end
Behind me when I took the photo above is the Presidential Palace of Vientiane.
Presidential Palace
A lot of the architecture in Vientiane resembles the Presidential Palace, but obviously on a smaller scale. It’s all in that same colonial style.
Across the street from the Presidential Palace is the That Sisaket, which is also a museum. I paid my 5,000 kip and went in for a visit. It’s Vientiane’s oldest surviving temple and monastery, although it’s only about 200 years old.
That Sisaket
There are a few things that set this temple apart from others. First, the sim (ordination hall) is enclosed within a square cloister, similar to Thai temples but unusual for Lao temples.
Cloister around the ordination hall
Second, the temple doesn’t face east like most Buddhist temples, and unlike most Lao temples it isn’t aligned with the river either. This is apparently unusual. Third, the wall on the cloister features thousands of niches with small images of Buddha inside them, behind rows of bigger Buddhas. These numerous small niches are apparently unusual for any Buddhist temple.
Buddhas in the cloister around temple Sisaket
The interior of the temple is quite lovely although unfortunately they do not allow visitors to take photos. There are painted murals on the walls that are really interesting, but sadly, also deteriorating although there’s an effort underway to conserve these. The architectural elements of the buildings depicted in the murals are particularly spectacular. Above the murals are more tiny Buddha niches.
After I visited the temple, I rolled across the street to visit another important temple, the Ho Prakeo or Emerald Buddha Hall. Originally constructed in the 16th century, this temple is the only surviving building of the old Palace. The Emerald Buddha image (the one now in Bangkok) was housed here for nearly 250 years before the Siamese recaptured the image a took it back to Thailand in the late-18th century. Apparently this structure has beautifully carved wooden doors (just the sort of thing I love to admire) as well as some wonderful artifacts. Unfortunately, I was unable to see any of these details as the temple is currently covered in scaffolding for conservation after the New Year holiday. Just my luck.
I decided to continue down the Setthathirath road to see if I could find my next point of interest, the COPE Rehabilitation Center. I heard about COPE from some of the folks in my 7 hour mini van ride from two days ago. COPE stands for Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise. It is a non-profit organization that helps people with disabilities to receive free access to quality rehabilitation services, including access to prosthetics for amputees who have lost limbs due to ordnance accidents. COPE opened a Visitor Center in 2008 to increase awareness around disabilities in Laos particularly due to UXO (unexploded ordnance) accidents. The Visitor Center aims to educate the public about the work of the organization as well as the tragedy of the UXOs in Laos. It’s almost like a mini-Museum in this hospital compound.
COPE Visitor Center
I will say that finding COPE was a bit of an ordeal. The map from Lonely Planet was wrong (yes, I will write them an email about this) and no other local map included COPE as a site of interest. So I walked to the area where Lonely Planet said it was located and then tried asking around. None of the locals seemed to know what I was asking about (which is sad, and illustrates how little awareness there is about COPE’s work among non-disabled communities in Laos) but I found a quirky Westerner who pointed me in the right direction. I was about a block away. Google Maps seems to have a more accurate read on COPE’s location. The Visitor Center is located off the side walk, within the Rehabilitation Center. You walk through the gate and take a right at the Rehabilitation Stadium (I think that’s what it was called) and you’ll see it.
The COPE Visitor Center is definitely worth a visit. There’s a small screening room that shows several different videos and documentaries on the UXO issues in Laos. I watched a couple of them. The exhibit itself is also telling. There are a lot of personal stories of the victims of UXOs that are very moving. There is also a substantial amount of information about the ordnances and bombs themselves. I never quite understood what a “cluster bomb” was and why it was so deadly, but now I certainly do. It’s worth a visit there, if anything, to see the amazing work that the organization is doing to help rural communities and their constituents with disabilities caused by UXO accidents.
At the COPE Visitor Center. A display explaining cluster bombs and their effects.
The process for creating a prosthetic limb
COPE Visitor Center
Statue outside the Visitor Center
I made my way back to my hotel thinking I would relax for a little while before dinner. No time for that. I decided to walk down by the river, where the night market is. Since it’s the dry season, and also unbearably hot (and I mean UNBEARABLY hot), much of the river has dried up. Many people have been going down into the banks of the river and it seems that someone built some sculptures out of sand. I figured I’d go down into the riverbed and check them out for myself.
Looking down at the Mekong riverbed that is mostly dry. By the way, Thailand is on the other side of the Mekong from Vientiane.
Sand sculptures on the riverbed
There were about five or six big sculptures there and they are quite detailed.
Sand sculpture on the Mekong riverbed
Eagle sand sculpture
Elephant sand sculpture at sunset
My guess is that these were created for the Lao New Year. Of course I don’t know this for sure since very few people speak English or French here, so I haven’t been able to figure out what these are and why they’re there.
I climbed out of the riverbed and walked on the promenade along the river to the King Anouvong Park to see the statue there.
Statue at King Anouvong Park
At that point it was after 6pm so the night market was starting up, so I walked through for a half hour. On my way back to my hotel, I decided to take a pit stop for an hour-long massage and then went strait to eat a little dinner at a restaurant/bar called Dresden, which felt like a speakeasy out of the 1920s. It’s been a full day!
Jules Traveler 