Often it's easy to know what to focus on as there has been one major activity which I've focused my time on throughout the day, but there are those days when I have been doing absolutely loads and it's more difficult to describe what I've been doing without making it seem like 'I went here, and then here, and then here'.
This will be the fifth or sixth blog that I have written - my first was when I moved to Korea, and then a couple of times when I've been away, or working abroad I have kept a record of what I've been up to in the form of a blog although I still don't have any idea whether I'm very good at it or not.
When I read back over the things that I write, it essentially does sound like a massive story strung together, and that's why I try to include as many pictures as my Internet connection will allow because at least this gives people an opportunity to visualise the places I've been or the things I've seen throughout the day.
My daily activities usually involve me going somewhere or seeing something, and as I wrote before, I think having something that I can complete daily helps to keep those memories fresh, even if it has meant a lot of time spent writing along the way. Hopefully when I come home I will have lots of stories which are at the front of my mind instead of experiences which are all tangled up in my memory because I haven't found an effective way to keep track of them as I've gone along.
I realise that reading about my day might not be the most exciting thing sometimes, but I try to include as much information in there as I can, and make them a combination of storytelling and information which I have picked up along the way.
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After the fiasco over breakfast yesterday I didn't even bother to set my alarm to wake up early this morning, and figured that waking up naturally would be perhaps be the best thing for me.
I stayed up to watch the first couple of holes of the US Masters last night so I didn't go to bed at a very sensible time. I got woken up this morning at about 6.30am feeling like I was sleeping in a sauna so I turned the A\C on before turning back over and going straight to sleep.
When I did eventually wake up properly I felt refreshed and made some plans for the day. With it being a day closer to Lao New Year I wasn't sure how much would be open, but at least I didn't get woken up by my neighbours having a party this morning which was definitely a bonus.
I'm guessing that for every person who has read even a sentence about my travels so far, Laos is the country they feel like they know least about. Before I set about making my plans to travel I doubt that I could have pointed it out on a map or even attempted to guess what its flag looked like.
One thing I did know it for is that is has a golden monument to Pha That Luang which is perhaps its most famous symbol. As it is located in Vientiane I thought that today would be a good opportunity to go and find where abouts in the city it lies as well as find a few of the other famous temples which are dotted around.
I feel like on my travels I have probably been to the same amount of temples as I have convenience stores, and although the ones in the Lao capital aren't as spectacular as in Thailand for example there are certainly plenty of them and they hold significance to the people who worship in them every day.
My plan was to go to Pha That Luang as it was just down the road from my hotel, and this would mean that I could go from there to the other two temples I planned on visiting without having to backtrack.
Like most of the business and museums, the temple closes between 12 Noon and 1pm for lunch so at around 12:45pm I set off not knowing how far I would have to walk, but realising that by the time I got there it would likely have opened back up.
I checked Google Map before I left, and it showed that the temple was at the third point of an equilatoral triangle if you used Patuaxi and My hotel as the other two points.
The easiest way for me to get there was to actually walk towards Victory Gate and then head way from it in a diagonal direction in order to get to the main road which leads to Pha That Luang.
Walking down the road which came on the opposite side of the 'V' shaped I'd just started walking I could see the gold dome of the building so was confident that I was now walking the right way. It probably took me about half an hour to get there, and there wasn't much to see on the way as it looked as though most things were closed. Thankfully there was a convenience story nearby which was open and that allowed me to get a drink and some crisps, which hardly counted as breakfast, but it's about as close as I was going to get.
With Pha That Luang in front of me, there was an intriguing looking building to the left so I headed towards it:
I'm unsure of it's purpose, but it seemed to be a monument of some kind to those lost in the Vietnam War:
Just behind it there was another very royal looking building:
There was a small fence out in front of it, but there also appeared to be a rather large open space which was being used as a short cut for motorcycles but probably had a more important purpose. I'm just not sure what it was.
Walking towards my intended target there didn't appear to be a clear entrance, although there was a small gap in the fence near where a lady was selling some snacks. She gave me a strange look when I walked over there as if to say "This isn't the entrance", but I carried on, as with no other obvious gaps in the fence I had to hop over a wall so that I was inside the boundaries.
The reason I was dubious about entering this way was because I knew that you had to pay to see Laos' national symbol and I didn't want to be attempting to sneak in, only to get caught out later.
As it turned out you had to pay only at the main entrance to Pha That Luang so stepping over a wall in order to get into the main area was no problem.
Pha That Luang sat at the centre of quite a large area which also had another couple of temples inside it:
I decided to explore these first so wandered over to the first one which, as most of the temples I've seen in this part of the world, looked spectacular from the outside:
There were a large amount of steps to walk but, but once inside it was also quite an impressive sight with some good decorations in the main entrance hall...
....and a golden statue of Buddha sitting towards the back of the main prayer room:
I walked towards the second temple but it looked as though it was being used for a ritual so I didn't bother to go inside, instead marvelling at how different it looked to the first temple I'd come across:
It cost 5000 Kip to enter into Pha That Luang and after briefly reading some information about the fact that it had been sitting there since the 3rd century I walked in.
It wasn't at all how I imagined it would be, and in fact it was less accessible than the picture I'd seen of it made it look.
There was a stone path around the outside with things which used to be inside the temple stored for safekeeping....
....and in a selfish sort of way, it was actually ridiculously hard to be able to take a picture and get the whole thing in at once:
Due to age, Pha That Luang didn't look to be in the best of conditions, and even though from a distance it looked shiny and golden, once you got closer up you realised that closer to the grounds the paint appeared to be peeling making it look rather unattractive and dilapidated. That's not to say it wasn't a very impressive sight though, and once I'd walked around it I found that it was actually must better to take a picture from outside the complex rather than from right next to the monument itself:
It happens all over the place, but I find it very funny that there are always people trying to make money out of taking your photograph in front of these major monuments, and at Pha That Luang it was no different. It makes me feel like I'm in Disney World or something as people walk around with a card offering to take your photo for an un-named fee when you enter.
Something I haven't seen before however was a many walking around with what from a distance looked like small wooden boxes, however when he passed by the front of me I saw that they were in fact bird cages with the miniature birds inside that I've seen flying around everywhere.
It's with the power of hindsight that I realised that perhaps when I saw someone reaching into a tree with the net the other day, it wasn't dragonflies or flowers they were trying to capture, but maybe these small birds. They are pretty elusive so whoever caught them had done an excellent job, but I'm not really sure if I'm honest that there is much of a market amongst tourists for caged birds.
From Pha That Luang I walked back down the road I'd arrived via until I got back to Victory Gate.
I continued on from there towards the palace, and as I had done on my first night here in order to get to the river I headed left, though this time instead of ignoring the temple to my left I headed inside.
Wat Sisaket sits opposite part of the Palace complex and is not only a temple but a museum which had many visitors when I entered. It was quite similar in layout to Pha That Luang (although not quite as large) and I chose to walk around the outside to see what was there first before entering into the main complex:
Once you got inside there was a traditional looking building in the middle which was Wat Sisaket itself:
Unfortunately you could go inside but weren't allowed to take photos. I took a quick wander in, but it was quite busy with a group of tourists who took up most of the space so I didn't stick around too long.
Along the waterfront in both directions and on the same street as the palace there are lots of temples, many of which I've seen but not walked in to on my travels.
I'd read that one was particularly flashy looking so headed in its direction.
At one point I thought I was going to get absolutely drenched by a group of people celebrating New Year, but thankfully they left me alone and I made it to the temple dry:
It wasn't anything particularly special that I hadn't seen before, but it was also closed for me to go inside so I just had to judge the book by it's cover.
I had completed all the tasks I planned on completing today so decided to talk a walk down by the river in the opposite direction to the one in which I had wandered yesterday. I'd noticed on the map that if you keep walking that way you actually get to the airport, although that didn't seem possible as I swear it was quite a long drive when I first arrived here on Saturday afternoon.
I obviously didn't get as far as the airport - either that or there were no planes to make it obvious I was heading in that direction, but I did get to a point where a beach had been laid out and there were people playing beach volleyball and beach football which was interesting to stand and watch for a while:
....though it didn't quite look as impressive on Saturday or Sunday. I honestly think if I lived by the water that I would go and watch the sunset every day as it is such a beautiful sight and something I think think I could possibly ever get bored of.
I nipped through the market to get myself some dinner before coming back to the hotel to spend what will be my final night in Vientiane, and also in Laos.
As I mentioned yesterday, Vientiane has been a bit of a slow burner. To not be too judgemental I'm going to blame it on the fact that it is New Year and lots of things seem to be closed, but I can't imagine it exactly been a hip and happening place during the rest of the year. There just doesn't seem that much to do here.
Whilst I've been walking around I feel like I have been taking my time to do everything realising that I actually have to fill a whole day with activities which might normally only take half a day at the most.
I think it's probably a good thing that I have only been here for a couple of days.
I have to admit though that my hotel situation really isn't helping. When I looked online there were some hotels which were closer to the main built up area of the Mekong, but these were extremely expensive, and more than my budget would allow me to pay. The hotel I am staying in got some quite reasonable reviews, but I have to be honest and say that I'm not overly impressed. It's not in a great location (on a main road) and it's quite far out of town meaning that you have to walk back along some very dimly lit streets, or take an expensive tuk-tuk to travel back what is an extremely walkable distance from the main area.
The hotel itself is OK - breakfast time is ridiculous and the internet reception is shocking (it works outside the room but not in it) and I think my review of the place will be very interesting for future patrons to read. I hate being negative, but I think I know myself well enough to know what where I am staying factors into my whole opinion of the place.
That being said, I don't regret coming here as it's good to have different experiences, but I feel like there are certainly better and more interesting places to come in Laos which would provide you with more entertainment and more to do.
Fool's Gold
Amy Winehouse (2003)
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