Big Buddha, Big Buddha, Big Buddha, Oh Yeah!

Perhaps the largest leaning Buddha in the world.  It's hard to trust Lao statistics.

So unlike last weekend when I managed to sleep in and finally drag myself out of the apartment to explore the evening market, this weekend was action-packed and adventurous!!!

Saturday began bright and early with a trip into town for coffee.  Sitting at the Patu Xai 2 Cafe (I'm not quite sure where1 is), I quickly joined the ranks of a herd of spectators, keenly watching a road crew cut down large branches from the trees hanging over the street.  Sounds boring, right?  Well, apparently on a Saturday morning this was the place to be.  Laos is pretty quiet and it was interesting to see how active this crew was at removing the dead branches.  More importantly however, was the shocking realization that there was no safety equipment, hard hats, street markers etc. separating the men working and the tourists below.  I only discovered this when, sitting quietly at a table looking at the street, I was suddenly showered with a pile of falling leaves and wood chips, quickly followed by the loud crash of the tree meeting pavement.  I immediately asked for my coffee to go, and rushed from the scene.

The afternoon brought yet another interesting adventure as I headed to Bee Bee fitness to meet the team for Dragon Boat Racing practice.  Not knowing where that even was (my hobomap even failed me, leading me off onto an endless "dirt road"), I hopped in a tuk-tuk.  Thankfully, I found the fitness center and met Kiki, another young initiate to the Lao ex-pat community.  Lao time ensued and while the meeting time was 2:00, we finally hopped in a doisan (a larger tuk-tuk, ironically the opposite of a jumbo, or smaller tuk-tuk) around 2:45.  We arrived at the village about 30 minutes later to a roaring crowd of men, women and children by the river bank.  Across the river, two Thai teams were competing and the villagers had camped out to scope out the competition.  Armed with binoculars in one hand and a BeerLao in the other, they were thoroughly enjoying their afternoon.  Kiki and I were invited to join a group of men for beer and talking.  We politely declined the beer but gave in to a quick conversation similar to that of most introductions in Laos (Are you married? Do you have boyfriend? Do you have children? Where are you from?... In that order, always)

After about an hour on the river bank, we finally made our way onto the boat for practice.  This week we had two coaches: Kibu ("You stop, I kiss) and a younger coach who made sprint paddling look like a piece of cake.  Practice was long and it was brutally hot out on the water.  The Lao women see it as very recreational and most the time, the coaches spend telling them to pay attention.  Now that I've mastered counting 1-10 in Lao, I can keep pace and add to the shouting camaraderie that is the racing experience.

I know many of you are interested in what this whole thing looks like.  This is a photo of a dragon boat (think war canoe on steroids).  We will be competing on October 31, so I will be ringing in 22 years Dragon style!

Lao dragon boats on the Mekong.  Each boat holds about 80 people in rows of 2.

We finally made it back to town around 6:45 and were exhausted.  Kiki and I planned on meeting for dinner and found a great Indian place by the river where for $3 we enjoyed naan, aloo gobi and veggie curry.  After dinner we met up with her friend Brad, an Australian who also works for the Vientiane Times, and headed to Bon Penyang, the popular rooftop bar overlooking the Mekong.  None of us lasted long and Kiki and I were sore from rowing all afternoon (I guess that means its working!) In order to be home by curfew (Lao government does not like having people out on the streets after 11 although it does not really apply to farangs), I hopped in a tuk-tuk, bargained down 50% and made my way home.

If Saturday morning is slow in Laos, Sunday is a somber funeral procession.  I finally made it out of the house at 10:30 to dead quiet in the streets.  Wondering if I had missed the apocalypse, I headed to the tourist district, where, thank goodness, there was a line at Le Banneton and Cafe d'or, the two french inspired bakeries.  I met up with Kiki, who finally got a Lao phone, and we wandered to Home Ideal, the DVD store and through the market before making our way to the Talat Sao bus station.  Following the handy one sentence directions in my trusty Lonely Planet, we boarded the #14 to the Friendship Bridge.  The bus was beautiful, clean and air conditioned.  Apparently the Japanese donated 50 new buses in an attempt to increase the use of public transportation and tourism in Laos. For 6,000 kip ($0.75), we rode the bus for about a half hour to the friendship bridge, which connects Laos to Thailand.  From there, we boarded a significantly sketchier mini bus to Xieng Khuan and Buddha Park.

This bus was much more of what I had expected from Lao transport.  The seats rocked back and forth, there was no observance of personal space, the engine shut off every time we hit a pot hole which I'm convinced the driver was doing purposely and the stick shift fell back into first every time he tried to accelerate.  It's hard to imagine a crazier piece of machinery, but the Lao among us seemed to love the ride, laughing all the way.  We finally got off the bus, paid our $0.25 fare, and entered the infamous Buddha Park.

Arial view of Buddha Park.

Although the park was built in 1958, by the Venerable Grandfather Luang Pu, it looks ancient.  Crammed in the space about the size of a football field, the bizarre yet ornate statues of reinforced concrete are numerous.  Being chased around by a crazy Lao guy with a video camera, Kiki and I tried to enjoy our visit and took time to pose with the statues.  The most famous one, at the entrance of the park, is four floors and contains a spiral staircase to the top.  We posed at the mouth (where you enter) before ascending.

Kiki and I in the mouth of the Buddha.

After wandering around for an hour, we made our way back to the road to wait for the bus. Not seeing one, we decided to walk along the road hoping that a bus would pass at some point (A reasonable thought but not all that reliable in Laos) Luckily a bus finally came, and we boarded amidst a dust cloud of clay brown dirt.  This dirt finally revealed its true identity when my "tan" washed away in the shower.

Pet Meanie and the Great Leaning Buddha.
Xieng Khuan, Laos. 

Arriving back in Vientiane, after another AC bus ride but this time next to a woman and her two bags of live crickets (one word: dinner), we decided to call up Brad and meet him from dinner.  Kiki introduced me to a great little falafel stand on the street and we sat there eating our pitas.  From there, we ran into Kate, another ex-pat, who invited us to her house to see her pugs.  She had been in the city rescuing a stray dog and had to run home anyways to get some pedigree.  Her wild and rambunxious pugs (3 of them!) were adorable and sad to see us leave.  But, again, we were exhausted and it was time to call it a night.

Back to the office today with new work adventures!  Stay posted!

xoxo Pet