One last day in Laos

Today included another half day in the car to travel from Vang Vieng to Vientiane. Although the distance is about 150 km (about 90 miles), it took four and a half hours. We had a couple of bathroom breaks along the way, as well as a stopover at a local market. Nick took us through the market that had a wide favorites of foods. First we stopped at the insect table. There were different kinds of crickets, grasshoppers, small crabs, and worms. Nick purchased a variety bag and offered samples. I had a hard time even looking at the insects, let alone eating one. But, when would I ever have the opportunity to try one again? I picked the smallest one I could find, which happened to be a grasshopper. When I tried to put it in my mouth, I couldn’t get my arm to raise. It was as if my body was saying no for me. I made a couple of attempts and finally deposited it into my mouth; antenna, legs, and all. I bit down and found it to be crunchy, salty, and not terribly flavorful. Actually, other than the shape, it wasn’t much different than a potato chip. These insects had been stir fried with oil and sprinkled with salt. It certainly wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I wasn’t interested in seconds. There were also other things to try. Nick had bought some skewers of meat. I sampled the snail and water buffalo. Both were very chewy and tough. I finally gave up chewing and had to just swallow them whole. Kim had gotten a rice patty, also on a skewer and held together with egg. I took a few bites of it to wash down the taste of buffalo.

We left the insect/skewer table and moved to the fresh meats. Fresh being a very descriptive word. The frogs, eels, fish, and snails were all alive in large metal containers. Every once in a while, an animal would liberate itself, and Kim almost stepped on a small eel, trying to squiggle its way to freedom. From the water dwellers, we processed by the mammals. There was an entire skinned calf curled up in a bowl about one quarter the size of a kiddy pool. There were rats, moles, and other animals. We continued to walk to the other corner of the market, where the avian products were located. One rooster was tied down, but all the others were either in covered baskets or underneath large baskets that had been inverted to create cages. There were pigeons, ducks, and chickens, as well as other birds that I couldn’t identify. We completed our tour through the fresh fruit and vegetable section. There were many items that I was familiar with, but Nick had to help us out with several of them. We have been served river weed several times and finally saw it “raw.” It looked like a mess of hair. Their were vegetables from China, for which Nick did not know the English name, but they looked like they came from the cucumber family.

We left the market and continued driving to Vientiane, where we drove straight to Wat Sisaket. It is the oldest temple in the city and now serves as a museum of Buddhist objects. In a rectangular structure around the temple, there were over a hundred Buddha statues lined up, facing the temple in the middle. Behind the statues were small cubby holes that each held two small Buddha figures. This was repeated on all four sides of the wall. In the temple, there is a honeycomb on every wall, again filled with little Buddha statues. In all, there are over two thousand Buddhas in the temple and about four thousand on the grounds.

Across the street is the formal Royal Temple, Wat Prakeo. It, too, serves as a museum for numerous Buddhist artifacts. The building also was the previous home to the Emerald Buddha; however, it is now in Thailand, after the Thais took it during the Siamese invasion in the late 1820’s. I searched my memory for a moment and then blurted out, “It’s at the Royal Palace in Bangkok!” Nick confirmed the location that I had remembered. The Emerald Buddha is so stunning, its image is still burned into my mind from viewing it almost 18 years ago, on my first trip to Thailand. I turned to Kim and reminded her that the Emerald Buddha was the one that I was impressed by all those years ago and we would be seeing it in Bangkok in just a few days. She was interested but not remotely as excited as I. The Wat was certainly worthy of such a jewel. The large structure has gold trim and detailed wood carvings on the main doors (now preserved behind glass). Inside, the Laotian architecture creates a high ceiling, with deep sloping roof.

We finished up the day, after lunch, with two more stops. First was the Patuxay Monument, which looks like a small Arc de Triumph. The structure was constructed to memorialize independence from France, so I thought it was ironic that they decided on this design. As much as it looks like the monument in Paris, the details paint a different picture. The window frames are enclosed with decorative metal, with a Buddhist flare. Where one sees gargoyles from a distance, the creatures are Buddhist in nature. There are also Buddha figures at the apex of the roof, reminding the onlooker that they are worlds away from that grand French city. It takes about 300 or so steps to get to the top, so we climbed them all for a panoramic view of the city. Below we could see temples interspersed with homes and buildings. In the distance the Mekong winds slowly past Thailand, which lies on the opposite riverbank.

A short distance away and last of our sights to see in Laos was That Luang Stupa. With a more recent coat of paint (thanks to a donation from Barack Obama), the stupa gleams in the sunshine. Although it was originally built centuries ago and has been restored numerous times. It was mostly destroyed during the Siamese invasion and rebuilt once again. It is a three level stupa, surrounded by a wall to keep the traffic out. Like Wat Sisaket, the wall around the stupa has a number of old Buddha statues and other Buddhist antiquities, such as stone tablets engraved in Sanskrit. The building was gorgeous, and we took a bit of time to enjoy the peaceful grounds and magnificent presence. We also knew the end of our time was nearing. With a heartfelt goodbye to Nick, we were dropped off at our hotel. Our driver will return to fetch us in the morning, but once we get to the airport, we’ll be on our own for the trip to Thailand. It has been a great tour of these three countries, and I can’t wait to recollect the magic in the thousands of pictures that have been taken.Read more