We slept over on the train, and wished everyone a Merry Christmas Morning. We arrived at Khai around 8:30 and then transfered to the Thai-Laos friendship Bridge at Nong Khai province. We ran into a bit of difficulty at the immigration checkpoint for some reason. My visa as well as Emi (from Japan)'s visa's were only single entry, which we had previously told Manit, the head Rotary Guy. We assumed that it slipped his mind that there are two Emi's and two Emily's so that was the reason that part got a little confused. Courtney and Anna, both had multiple entry visa's but for some reason also ran into some problems. We ended up having to go to an immigration office and get re-entry visa's made out for us, which was just a lot of paperwork. It made all of us slightly annoyed since we had just gone through similar paperwork a few weeks ago, as our three month check ins. But despite all of that, we were able to go across the border into Laos. By the time we had finished going through immigration, we were all STARVING! due to the fact that we hadn't eaten since KFC at the train station the night before (around five) and it was now nearing noon. We also wanted showers...those were on the top of the list of things to do. We checked into our hotel, showered, and got ready for the days adventures.
We had lunch at a restaurant that was named Seafood, though no seafood was actually served...which was a little bit humorous for all of us. We were staying in the town of Vientiane. After lunch, we headed off on a city tour and our first stop was at Pha That Luang.
Pha That Luang is the national symbol and most important religious monument of the country. it is a three-layered gilded stupa. The version that we saw dates from 1566, but it has been ransacked and renovated numerous times since them. Here is a brief history of the temple. It was originally built as an Indic temple in the 3rd century. Buddhist missionaries from the Mauryan Empire are believed to have been sent by the Emperor Ashoka, who brought a holy relic (believed to be the breast bone) of Lord Buddha to the stupa. It was rebuilt in the 13th century as a Khmer temple which fell into ruins. In the mid 16th century, King Setthathirat relocated his capitol to Vientiane and ordered construction of this temple in 1566. It was rebuilt about 4 km from the center of Vientiane . The bases had a length of 69 meters each and was 45 meters tall, and was surrounded by 30 small Stupas. In 1641, a Dutch envoy of the Dutch East India Company visited, and was recieved by King Sourigna Vongsa at the temple. He received a magnificent ceremony. The stupa has been repeatedly plundered by the Burmese, Siamese and the Chinese. Pha That Luang was destroyed by the Thai invasion in 1828, which left it heavily damaged and left abandoned. It was not until the 1900, when the French restored it to its original design, based on the detailed drawings from 1867 by the French architect and explorer Louis Delaporte. The first attempt to restore it was unsuccessful, and it had to be resigned and then reconstructed in the 1930s.
There is a bit of info on the temple, and you are probably thinking, "Enough writing! Let's see some pictures!" So, here are some pictures of Pha That Luang.
This is one of the buildings on the outside of this temple, I'm not totally sure what it is, but its really quite pretty. I decided to show you a picture of it. :)
Directly outside of the temple, you can see it in the background, there were these ladies selling these birds. Apparently they are for good luck, and these ladies (and men) would wander around, capturing them, and then selling them to the people. Though i didn't see any one buying the birds, there were sure a lot of people selling them. They were very camera shy, so I had to be sneaky in catching a photo, without being asked for money. I don't think they would ask, but I didn't have any Laos money, and didn't want to risk it. Though i would have happily paid them for the picture, I was just too lazy.
A group shot outside the temple. Sadly I ruined this picture by wiping my eye, but in my defense, we were looking directly into the sun! There are other pictures where I am not rubbing my eye, but the others have them. I will have to get the picture from them at a later date. You will notice I am in pants. My host mom told me that it would be cold, so I didn't bring any shorts. Not my smartest plan, because it didn't get cold until the very end of the trip, leaving me constantly hot. It was fun though.
Walking up the temple steps. This is the entrance way to the temple. Under the big, um, roof there is a small area where you can pray. It was a beautiful temple, and I thoroughly enjoyed walking around it. Anna (the American) found a nail that was poking upwards with her foot, not exactly a fun experience and had her hobbling for the rest of the day. Luckily, P'boy and P'Gop knew what to do, and medical attention was not needed.
The temple itself. Pretty magnificent eh? Well that's what it looks like. Very tall, and golden, and starting to lose its golden color in some areas. It is still a very important symbol for the people of Laos and I was glad that I was able to experience a part of their culture.
Fernanda standing in front of the temple. I thought it was a cool picture, so I took it. :) The place was magnificent. The gate that you can't see because Fernanda's butt is in the way, was all ornately done, and had Buddhist images on it. Pretty cool.
All of us standing on the grass beside the temple. There wasn't a lot of people there...we were the only ones pretty much, so it was easy to get a photo without a million other people in it.
An outside look at the temple. As you can see, it is much more colorful than the previous ones I have been to, and I don't just mean there's less gold. This entire complex was bright with murals, and colors. Quite pretty.
The ceiling of the Temple. As you can tell, its brightly colored. The entire place was painted like this. There's not much that I can say, because I don't know the stories behind the murals, but its pretty to look at.
A side look across the temple, including the roof, pillars, and all of the murals. Pretty eh?
Our next stop of the day was at Patuxai, or the Victory gate. This is a local rendition of Paris' Arc de Triomphe. Besides the elaborate Buddhist embellishment, it differs from the original in having four gates instead of two, and being just a bit higher (to spite the French). It is pretty impressive from afar, and there is a very frank English sign inside the monument that lables it a "monster of concrete". The concrete in quesion was donated by the US, but it was supposed to go towards a new airport instead. The area around the monument is completely lined with palm-trees and is complete with fountains. It was quite nice, but definately lacking in shade during the heat of the day.
We were allowed to climb up this monster (to the seventh floor, stairs only) and got to see a nice view of central Vientiane. There were two souvenir shops there, where we were able to buy a few things. I got some flags for my jacket, a keychain, and a post card or two, for very cheap. I thought Thailand was cheap, but holy smokes, Laos is much cheaper, though it seems much more expensive because of their money. One cup of coffee is like...10,000 kip (their currency) which is like...a dollar? Maybe less...I don't know the exact currency rate.
Some history of this gate. It is a war monument in the center of Vientiane. It was built between 1957 and 1968. It is dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France. Though it does bare some similarity to the one in France, as I earlier mentioned, it is typically Laotian in design, and is decorated with many Buddhist mythoogical figurines such as the kinnari (half-female, half-birg figures). It was built during the turbulent history of Laos, and its known as Anousavali (literally meaning "memory.") The monument was built after World War II in memory of the Laotian soldiers who died in various wars, as was as during the independence from Frand in 1949, which was an era of the monarchy in the country. It was built using American funds, and in the 1960's the cement was originally intended to build an airfield during the Vietnam ward. The US gave the money to the Laotian government to build an airport, but the government decided to build the monument instead. As a consequence, the monument is sometimes referred to as teh "vertical runway." It was designed by the architect Mr. Tham Sayasthsena, a Laotian citizen.
Enough history, lets add some pictures.
Here is a view looking out from the building. As you can somewhat see, there is somewhat of a "landing strip", but the real landing strip is on the otherside. There were lots of people there, but it was hard to get a decent picture, becuase of the placement of the sun. I climbed to the very top, and it was pretty cool. An awesome view of the city.
This is more of the "landing strip" that was talked about. It looks like one too. This just shows a bit more of the scenery and the area of Laos.
Looking up at the ceiling, and you can see the Buddhist images. There were lots of different pictures around the place, but these were the ones that I could get the best picture of. You can't see the kinnari in this picture though.
A different picture of the "landing strip".
I will admit, this is not my picture, credit to who ever took it. This is the final staircase to get to the very top of the building. I was a little uneasy about climbing it, but I faced my fear because my friends said that there was a spectacular view. To me the view was pretty much the same, just a bit higher than the platform before, but it's all good.
Looking at the Arc. It really does resemble the one in France. It was hard to get a picture because of the location of the usn, but you can somewhat see the building.
Once again, not my picture. There was too many people for my picture to look like this. I got it from google, so credit to who ever took it. I just wanted to show you what the building looked like, without the sun behind it. It's pretty impressive. I climbed to the very top. There is a little room that we could walk around in the middle, and very tallest pier. Pretty cool. The souvineer shop was located in the square part below the middle tier, and then the second store was located in the big middle section.
Our final stop of the day was at another temple. This temple was called Wat Si Muang. Here is some history about this temple. Wat Si Muang was created in 1566. It is home to the central pillar of the city, and is famed for bringing good luck and fortune, especially to those that are trying for children. The legend behind the temple is that a pregnant woman that was so inspired by the Gods, threw herself into the hillar hole, moments before it was placed. The wat (temple) is surrounded by gates, once inside there are many stunning Buddha statues. The most notable one is placed under a large Hodhi tree, with several serpents shadowing over the top. Inside the wat there are two rooms. the entrance room and the alter room. The altar room is pretty truly an inspirational mix of colors, sights, and smells.
Here are some pictures:
Here is the famous Buddha image sitting under the tree. At the time, I didn't know that it was all that important, but now I am glad that I thought it looked interesting, and took a photo of it.
One of the stals that was seling flowers, candles, incense, and other religious articles that can be used within the temple. I didn't purchase any, becuase I didn't do any praying. Normally I would, but a few of us were starting to feel tired of all of the wats. Remo, who had only been to one or two, was grumbling about them. Which was quite amusing. The prices were fairly cheap, and there were a lot of young couples who were buying. I guess they really wanted a baby. :)
The shrine. This is the shrine that is located within the alter room, and let me tell you, that room smelt. Not bad, but the smell of the incense was pretty overpowering. I could only spend about 15 minutes in there before my allergies started acting up, and I had to flee the room.
A side look down the building. All of the windows had metal grates that were designed with Buddhist images, pretty cool. One thing I didn't understand was the name of the temple. Wat (temple) Si Muang (the color purple). The temple had very little purple, and in all honesty was very yellow...so that confused me greatly, but I didn't question it because our guide was very ....flamboyant, and enjoyed going off on very long tangents that after a while, stopped making sense.
So that was what we did today, lots of temples, and lots of cool things. This post was really long, so if you got bored, sorry about that. We headed out and had a fancy dinner at a restaurant at the airport, but it wasn't very good. They gave us free wine (which we were allowed to drink, because of the holiday) but it tasted like....garbage? Haha it wasn't very good at all....we guessed that that was the reason it was free :)
An across look at the alter room.
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