The Land of Million Elephants @ Vientiane 萬象

HOW DID I GET HERE?
In Vang Vieng, I left the villa and walked to the tour company to catch the mini van to Vientiane. Before getting on van I was able to eat my breakfast, noodle soup (15,000K).

I lost backpack rain cover few days later.

The interior of the mini van, it was by far the most comfortable trip in Laos.

I met a Chinese backpacker from ShenZhen, Yvonne. We met before in LPB and I didn't know she was going to Vientiane too. We had many topics on the way. The mini van was so comfortable till we fell asleep. After 4 hours ride, we were dropped off somewhere in town near to Talat Sao (according to map). 

We decided to share a room since the room price here is not that cheap. I know the next day she'd be going to Thailand by bus where as I'll be taking a sleeper bus to go Pakse in the late evening.

We have been searching a better condition guesthouse for hour under the hot sun. Finally we made up our mind to stay here for 1 night.

WHAT TO DO HERE?

Vientiane, the local called it as Viang Chan (萬象 Million Elephants) , was the capital of Lan Xang Kingdom (Million Elephants). The romanized spelling "Vientiane" is French origin, and reflects the difficulty the French had in pronouncing the hard "ch" sound in the Laotian word. 

During the French colonization era, the French settled in here and rebuilt the capital became as a major hub of Indochina, along with Phnom Penh(Cambodia) and Saigon (Vietnam).

There are quite a number of traveler spots in this capital. We only had half a day, so we decided to go Patuxai and That Luang.

This is our itinerary:
- Exchange some Lao currency
- Walk to Patuxai (Victory Gate)
- Walk to That Luang
- Walk back to Mekong River near our guesthouse

We left our guesthouse after lunch and exchanged some Lao currency in a local bank. 

We came to this junction Avenue Lane Xang that leads to Patuxai.

We walked to the entrance of Vat Si Saket Museum. An entrance ticket is required.

I have come to the point where I had enough visiting temples and a temple with ticket needed is such a big turn-off too. So I just took a picture at the entrance.

Nearby there's the president house.

TRAVELER SPOTS:

A) PATUXAI

Patuxai or the Victory Gate, is the Lao version of Arc de Triumph in France. This replica monument was built in Vientiane to honour the soldiers who fought for independence from the French. The ticket entrance is the cheapest among all traveler spots in Laos I have visited so far.

TICKET         : 3,000 KIP

TIME              : 08:00 AM - 17:00 PM

After 30 minutes walk under the sun, we finally reached it.

Walking closer to Victory Monument.

Good place to take photo but the heat was killing us!

When we walked closer to the bottom of the arch, it has a typical Laotian design and the ceiling is beautifully decorated with some mythological God : Vishnu, Brahma, and Indra (from left to right).

The monument is not fully finished till this day. I can notice some poor carving work at some corners. It became even obvious once we went up to the monument. We came to the first floor, there are some stalls dealing with tourist paraphernalia,souvenirs etc. The entire floor is like a souvenir bazaar than anything else. There isn't any special up here. The same goes to the second floor where some vendor stalls are selling the same stuff. I was quite disappointed with what I have seen here. I'm not saying these stalls shouldn't exist on top of here. But could they have something more interesting or a gallery related to this monument? No wonder the ticket is really cheap I assumed.

The Lao national flag (right) next to it is a red flag with a hammer and a sickle.That is because Laos is a communist country. It is common to see the national flag hanging along with the red flag.

We walked all the way from Mekong river direction to this monument.

We were reluctantly staying within the monument to avoid exposing under the unbearable midday sun for quite some time. As  resting in the shade did help to boost up our stamina so that we could continue to our next destination -- That Luang. 

Coming up the summit I could see this panoramic view of the city from the northern point. The Patuxai is located at the end of Lane Xang Avenue in the heart of Vientiane city. The small beautiful square surrounds the monument.

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After some rest, we left Patuxai and headed to the right  junction. A road sign written in Laotian and French.

Vat Nong Bone just opposite a park.

B) THAT LUANG

That Luang is the national symbol of Lao and considered the most scared Buddhist monument. It was closed when we reached there after 5pm. But taking photo outside is fine. The glittering golden monument looked extremely outstanding in the late evening. The blue sky and lighting was so perfect.

I walked around the temple Vat That Luang Tai, just next to That Luang.

The Buddha's foot.

The Laotian temple had some similar designs with temples in LPB.

We made a move back and passed by the beautiful Patuxai.

On the way to Talat Sao bus station, we saw this beautiful rainbow above the sky of Vientiane. The first rainbow ever seen throughout my journey! Probably it was a good sign. 

Yvonne checked her bus that is going across the border to Udon Thani

(noticed the spelling in Lao is changed to "Oudonthany")

This city is extremely dusty! Anyway we had walked for about 8km within few hours! At last we managed to return to the Mekong river on time and enjoy the sunset at riverside park.

At night I bought my sleeper bus ticket from the guesthouse for 180,000KIP. The remaining money I have is about 1,000,000 KIP! 

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On the next day in Viang Chan (Vientiane), we decided to take our time slowly since we will be heading to different locations. Yvonne will be going to Chiang Mai where as me will be going to southern Lao. My sleeper bus is around 6pm.

I have packed all my stuff ready to check out.

It was such a long day here. I stayed in the guesthouse most of the time to avoid the heat outside. There's only a fan at the lobby.

Our backpacks were placed at the lobby. 

Soon Yvonne greeted me goodbye as she needed to head to the Dalat Sao bus station. I wished her all the best and have fun in her journey in Thailand. Probably we could still meet up in Vietnam next month. 

Lao coffee tasted bitter, creamer milk is needed.

Walking around aimlessly.

It was raining in the evening. According to the map, my guesthouse is located just opposite Wat Mixai. I didn't even visit this temple as it was closed most of the time.

Continue my journey to Pakse on the sleeper bus...

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TO BE CONTINUED