Vientiane, Laos

Sunday and Monday, 26 & 27 November 2006

The apocalyptic vomiting forecasted for our bus trip in Laos (see blog entry for Phonsavan) turned out to be a bit like a Nostradamus prophecy: the prophecy came through, we just got the date wrong. The overnight bus to Vientiane was a torrid affair (described by Leahanne as the "worst journey of her life"). The sights (no need to be eating that much carrot before a long bus journey) and sounds (eardrum-piercing Thai karaoke again) will haunt our dreams for some time yet. We were therefore glad to arrive in Laos' capital one hour ahead of schedule. It was 4 am though and meant that we had to try to sleep in the bar of the Lang Xiang Hotel, until our room was free at 9 am. We killed time by doing a walking tour of South East Asia's "most modest" capital. There is very very little to see here and after being underwhelmed by the city's mock Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, we slept for the day.

Before getting on our flight to Hanoi, Leahanne decides to make a trip to the Buddha Park, 25km to the west of Vientiane. The Buddha Park is a collection of Buddhist and Hindu statues built in 1958 by Luang Phu Boonlua Surirat, an "interesting" guy and self-styled holy man, who claimed to have been the disciple of a cave-dwelling Hindu hermit in Vietnam (!). The cheapest way to the park is by local bus so Leahanne bites the bullet and piles in with the locals, encountering a few smiles but mostly lots of stares! The Buddha 'theme' park (as Dara likes to call it!) turns out to be smaller than expected and there isn't a ferris wheel in sight, but it is crammed with a huge amount of sculpture that wouldn't have looked out of place on the album sleeve for Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: the first thing you see is a giant pumpkin (which has three inner levels representing hell, heaven and earth), you can climb to the top of the pumpkin and get a great panoramic of the park; there is also a 20m long reclining Buddha, which the locals come to worship. The rest of the park consists of lots and lots of quirky statues (just see the photos!). Boonlua Surirat fled from Laos to Thailand during the 1975 revolution, where he established another buddha park in Nong Khai - guess it's a bit like Disneyland and Disney World...