On February 6, I took a short aeroplane hop from Luang Prabang. It is a very small airport which makes ticketing and security easy. With only 4 gates you walk on to the tarmac to get your plane.
This place is so beautiful in going to miss it.
The flight was only 35 minutes. A sleeker bus would take 10 hours. When we landed you can see the sky is not as clear. There is pollution here as it is the capital city.
I arrived at the hotel but they have 3 properties and I was actually at a different one. The manager took me by bike. Good thing I only had 2 backpacks. There is a swimming pool I can use at this one which made it totally worth the move.
After swimming and talking to some very friendle people, I took off to get lost. For people who know me I have no sense of direction and it is not getting better. But I have sim card and Google maps and a paper map. Google is great because it automatically pinpoints your reservation. In this case though, I had to mark my maps with where my new hotel is.
First I saw the presidential Palace.
I found Wat Sisaket. Architecture dates back to 1818. It was built by Chao Anuvong, the last king of the Lan Xang Kingdom. It survived the Siamese-Lao war in 1828 and is the oldest Buddhist monastery here in Laos.
I have no pictures inside the temple which is beautiful. It is forbidden. One woman walking around with her phone in her hand had to open her pictures and show them every one. Mine was in my hand but I have it in a wallet which was closed.
The cloister walls house thousands of tiny Buddha images and rows with hundreds of seated Buddhas. They date from the 16th and 19th centuries and there are all sizes. There are statues made from wood, stone and bronze. It is said there are more than 6,800 Buddhas in total.
There is a five meter long beautiful wooden naga (in Sanskrit, it means serpent deity). This wooden trough carries water during religious ceremonies. Perfumed water is poured into the hang hod and it flies into the heads of the Buddha and other statues.
The one above is not used anymore. This one behind the temple is the one that they use.
Pictures of the many stairs made of different materials and ones that caught my eye.
Other buildings on the site.
Architecture amazes me. The detail on the roof caught my eye.
There are many stupa which houses items and ashes from religious or important people. There are more on these grounds then I have seen to date. I saw one from an ambassador.
Some are ornate and others are not.
A drum tower.
A Buddha statue.
After I walked around and found the statue close to the Mekong. It is beside a park where the night Market is also found. Before the statue is a group of serpents rising up.
Chao Anouvong, also known as Xaiya Setthathirath V, led the Lao rebellion as the last monarch of the Kingdom of Vientiane.
Detail from the base of the statue which had thousands of figurines.
Vendors are putting together flower alms for giving at the statue.
Pictures taken at sunset.
Between the road and the mekong looks to be farmland. There is also a farmers market.
But there is also an amusement park that has animatronic dinosaurs and other things for kids. There are also vendors set up in little pods.
I wandered for awhile eating food from street vendors. When my phone battery was getting low I headed back to the hotel for a better night’s sleep as the day before Das a long day and I did not sleep as long as I should have.
A view of the fountain near my hotel.
