Our Great Adventure: Day 71 28/11/2014

To be fair most places are going to struggle to live up to the magnificence of Angkor and Vientiane is certainly included. It's difficult to know what to think of the place. The capital of Laos, it's known for it's cosmopolitan mix of Soviet-Franco architecture, temples and French bakeries. There's certainly nothing wrong with the place but we both feel a little bit flat. And the hotel is clean and functional but it's not got the warm and homeliness of the Rose Apple. But then it couldn't really have got any better. After breakfast at the hotel we headed off to get the local bus to visit Xieng Khuan (Buddha Park). It's full of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures and is located 25km east of the city. According to Lonely Planet (which in fairness does state that things change) the local bus goes all the way. We were quite pleased with ourselves that we'd found the right bus and checked it went to Xieng Khuan. We paid our 6,000 kip each and set off. After about 45 minutes the bus stopped at a newly built railway station and everyone got off. Apparently this was the end of the route. To go on to Xieng Khuan we needed to get a tuk tuk at an extortionate amount of 80,000 kip. Whilst not a lot in reality (about $10) we were both feeling pretty scammed and after a bit of deliberation decided that the park was not that big an appeal to either of us so we got back on the bus, paid our 6,000 rip and headed back to Vientiane! After a bit of a replan we headed to Wat Si Saket, the oldest temple in Vientiane only to find it was closed for lunch. We decided we'd do the same and headed to the famed Scandinavian Bakery. It was OK but nothing to write home about. From here we went back to Wat Si Saket. The temple contains over 300 buddhas in the cloister. The walls of the main temple are being restored, thanks to German funding, and contain intricate paintings which we assumed were of King Anouvong who the temple was built for. From here we walked north to Patuxai, the Victory Monument. It was built in 1969 to commemorate the Lao who died in the pre-revolutionary wars and is constructed of cement donated by the USA, intended for building a new airport. It's not a particularly impressive building and clearly the locals don't think so either as you can see from the notice below but the views from the top were OK. We then carried on north to reach Pha That Luang, the most important national monument in Laos, a symbol of Buddhism and Lao sovereignty. It was very hot going and the 2.5km felt more like 5. However it was worth the trek as it was a lovely stupa and we stopped enroute on the return for a coke in order to give us the energy for the walk back. In the evening we fancied some European food, so headed to Le Provencal, a top rated French restaurant for lamb chops for Simon and pork for Diane and a delightful carafe of vin rouge.