Intouch Guesthouse, Vientiane, Day 3

Today we plan to explore more of the city, and to do these we enlist the help of a couple of bicycles. The roads don't seem as crazy as most places we have been, so we feel pretty confident we will be okay. We set off not really aiming for anything in particular, but just biking around seeing what we see. There are plenty of temples to keep our eyes occupied as we head to the quieter part of the city, but before long we get hungry. We stop at a lovely little cafe and get a huge portion of fried rice. The family that run it also supply us with a free pot of tea and a small bowl of soup that tastes amazing. We leave there full of food and drink, and all for a pound each.
I feel at this point I must mention how amazing the tea in Laos is. It is truly gorgeous, and beats any other country we have been to by a mile. I don't know what they do, but it works.
After dinner we realise we are quite close to a monument named Patuxai. It is a huge, kind of tower with a large archway on each side. We bike there and take a walk around. Yesterday in the mini bus we passed by and didn't think much of it, but on foot it is much better.
We also get to climb to the top of it, giving great views of the whole of Vientiane. A lovely park is situated at the bottom of it and we spend a bit of time wandering from Patuxai at one end the the freedom gong at the other. This was something given to the government of Laos as a gift, and is covered in flags and symbols form places all over the World. One thing I will never get used to is seeing the swastika symbol. Seen as a symbol of good luck and also a symbol related to the heart and soul of Buddha, it is often seen at temples, and also is on the freedom gong. Obviously connotations are different in Europe, and even though I have seen it a lot, it is always strange.
When we leave we take a short ride to the MAG centre. This is similar to the COPE centre we visited yesterday, and we chat to a worker who talks us through the impact the bombs had and still have in Laos. MAG does great work, employing local people to find the unexploded bombs and carefully detonating them, before someone else does accidentally. It is great to talk to the worker, who is initially from Manchester, which is where the charity is founded.
We are pointed into the direction of a temple complex we are told is good, and it is there we bike to next. It is a rather long ride, but we are feeling energetic today, buoyed on by the excitement of a new country, and we get there in no time. The complex has some good temples, but one inparticular, that is named Pha That Luang, or the Golden stupor, stands out. It is a huge monument and is bright Gold. It is quit some sight, and we are glad we found it.
We start the journey back along some very busy roads. It is actually fun to mingle with the traffic, and stopping at lights and working your way to the front of the queue to join all the mopeds is very good fun.
We take a breather and grab a very tasty cake and coffee at a shopping mall. It would be amazing if a pancake stall didn't have the most annoying song of all time playing on repeat the whole time we were there. It was enough to drive the calmest man insane, and we left vowing to never buy a pancake from that company (N and B, it pains me to even write their name).
We bike back along the river, and stop off at a lovely park, where a young boy and his mother come over to sit with us. His mum then walks off, leaving us in charge of a child whom we have no real ways of communicating with. Luckily, he is happy tearing leaves apart, and doesn't seem too bothered that has been left with two pale looking strangers. I am sure Amy would have taken him with us if she could, but his rather worried looking Dad comes and claims him. After another long day, we head back to the hotel exhausted and hungry.
After a short rest, we head out to a lovely restaurant before going back to the room and getting some sleep. Vientiane has been great, and we can't wait to head North to Vang Vieng tomorrowBaca selengkapnya