Our flight was at 6.30 a.m. We were supposed to meet our tour leader at 4.30 a.m. I camped overnight at KLIA2 ... I bought a drink at McDonald's and sat there till about 4.15 a.m. I was the last person to drop my baggage, the rest of the party had already done so and had gone into the departure hall. Heh. I was on time. The rest were super early.
Our flight was on time. We flew for about 2 hours and 40 minutes and landed at Wattay International Airport. The airport was small, and was under renovation at the time.
Our local guide, Lavone, met us at the airport. We were bundled into 2 vans and headed for breakfast.
Beef Pho at Phozap, Vientiane
Each bowl was LAK20,000
After a quick breakfast, we went to Pha That Luang, a symbol of Laos.
A sleeping Buddha statue
A gold-covered large Buddhist stupa
Very delicious coconut ice-cream, only LAK4000
We checked into Duoang Deuane Hotel, Vientiane. This was a very old hotel.
My room on the 4th floor
At least the bed was clean.
At least the bed was clean.
Hmn .... big room, but everything else in the room was old. The furniture was old. I did not dare sit on the sofa. The bathtub was stained yellow, so it looked disgusting. In the afternoon, we visited 4 places ...
Temple of the Emerald Buddha
This temple was first built in 1565 to house the Emerald Buddha. But since the Emerald Buddha has been moved to Thailand, Haw Phra Kaew is now used as a museum. There are many statues of Buddha here, some dating from the 6th to 9th century.
One of the statues at the terrace
There is also a huge stone jar at the compound, a 2000 year old stone jar from the Plain of Jars of Xieng Khouang Plateau.
Across the road from Haw Phra Kaew is Wat Si Saket. Wat Si Saket was built in 1818. It may be the oldest temple still standing in Vientiane.
The next place we visited was the Patuxai Arch.
Victory Gate or Gate of Triump
This is a war monument, built between 1957 and 1968. The Patuxai is dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France.
The arch
We paid LAK3000 to enter the building ... there are some stalls selling souvenirs inside the acrh building ...
Lastly, we went to the COPE Centre. This to me, was the most meaningful place we visited that day. Laos is considered the world's most heavily bombed nation. During the period of the Vietnam War, more than 2 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos, mostly cluster bombs that contained hundreds of individual bomblets or bombies. An estimated 30% of these munitions did not detonate.
Till today, these unexploded ordnance pose a threat to the citizens of Laos, old and young.
Due to the large number of casualties from unexploded ordnance from bombs dropped on Laos, many survivors still require ongoing support. COPE stands for The Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE). It works in partnership with the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation (CMR) to ensure that people with physical disabilities have local, affordable access to a quality, nationally-managed rehabilitation service.
An exhibit showing a canister containing bombies
We went back to our hotel after that. At night, we walked to the night market along Mekong River. The night market was surely very long ...
After the night market, we went back to the hotel. It'd been a long, long day.
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