Vientiane - That's the spirit!

Vientiane (Laos)

Now the Lonely Planet guide had something in it that had caught our attention as it indicated that this particular place was a must see destination if one was going to be spending a bit of time in Vientiane. From some of the pictures that I'd seen before hand I kind of had to agree with their assessment. Basically this venue or place was called the Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan) and was located approximately 25kms south-east of Vientiane or a 40min ride out of town by tuk-tuk. In actual fact it may have been longer than that now that I think of it. Although, for the 'player at home', our tuk-tuk man did have a pricing schedule in his motorised office so we knew exactly what we'd be in for before departing Vientiane.

.

What to say about the Buddha Park? Well, it was built by a priest-shaman back in the middle of the 1950's and combines both Buddhist and Hindu pieces within the display. I must say, I'm a little hazy on the reasoning in terms of the how and why this man cracked it one sunny afternoon and decided to undertake this radical endeavour, and at this moment in time, truthfully, couldn't be too bothered to do the requisite research for this write up, but I do know that whilst we were in Vientiene  the best any of us could  come up with was, 'how freakin' random is this place?' , and yes, it was exactly that. Below are some of the shots that we captured whilst in the park.

Giant Buddha - Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan) - Vientiane

Some bizarre tree out of a head and a 'Last Crusade' look alike

Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan) - Vientiane

The place was stimulating enough to maintain our interest for a couple of hours, if nothing else it provided most of us with some photo opportunities of which we all took advantage. In addition, being a warm day and understanding that it would be most un-Lao, or perhaps that could be better said as most un-Australian to pass up an opportunity to sit back and consume some of Lao's finest product, that's pretty much what we did for the rest of the afternoon. Overlooking the Mekong, with cows walking amongst us, we settled back for a many a bottle of beer Lao or several until at some point I felt obliged to walk over and chat with the tuk-tuk driver in order to  discuss with him how long we intended on staying, etc. Whilst chatting he did advise me that he was looking to move at sometime in the near future as he needed to pick his kids up from school, so out of courtesy I told him 'no problems' and that we'd be making a move relatively soon. And really, to keep a guy waiting for hours without advising him as what's going on his just a lack rude, discourteous and displays a complete lack of manners. I say that because somewhat ssurprisingly and for some unknown reason, my cock head mate decided to put it to the group or rather asked them rather directly whether they were OK with what I'd just gone and done? Now what the hell was that about?  I mean where is the necessity and reasoning behind that? I was acting purely out of courtesy and not malice or spite. To me his questioning of my behaviour was purely arrogant and pointless. Even as I write this there are just many points that come to mind in hindsight  that I realise particularly pissed me off  but I  didn't act on for the sake of harmony and no causing a scene. In any case the rest of the group felt it was the right thing to have done so at least in that sense I was vindicated for showing a little class and courtesy.
.
 It's strange but on reflection of this particular event and several others that followed it really felt as thought he was deliberately trying to antagonise me, for what reason I'm not quite sure? In any case, that aside, we motored back into Vientiane later that afternoon on our hired tuk-tuk and landed ourselves a great position in a half decent bamboo bar where we were able to chill out in some prime cushioned comfort and caught another magnificent sunset make its way over from the Thai side of the border. As people know  I've got a thing for sunsets and the couple that I saw during my time in Vientiane were truly spectacular.

Sunset over Vientiane - Laos

It was another end to a fantastic day. So as the sun decided to call it quits and our memories faded into a meld of alcohol infused well being mixed with introspection and a matchbox full of new experiences, JJ and I decided to take the litmus test and wonder the streets, particularly looking for a bar that I had located online before we left good 'ole Sydney town. A place called The Spirit House.

.

This little bar is something that I checked out online prior a few months earlier in anticipation of spending a few days in Vientiane. It looked pretty cool although Jase told me that I'd be going along because it looked to upper class for him. Another idiot response but on reflection, any place that had a few additional carpets on the floor would have been too upper class for him, so maybe was right. In any case I do recall the directions for the Spirit House being something akin to, walk down the main road, find yourself a direct track and keep going, and then 'when you think you've walked too far, is when you've actually walked far enough'.

.

JJ and I attempted to get a tuk-tuk to take us down to this place but for some reason the tuk-tuk drivers actually didn't know what we were talking about or weren't particularly interested or came up with some exorbitant price for getting us to a place that they seemed to only  vaguely know. We took a punt and walked the Mekong highway for 20 mins or so until we reached the end of the bamboo stretch. Thus far it appeared that everything was on track, and literally, by the time we decided to keep going, we were on a dirt track. This was when the choice however seemed to become somewhat dubious. No street lights, a small dirt track, all other roads diminishing out of sight, us walking into the Vientiane wilderness. I continued to explain to JJ that from memory this was the way it was suppose to happen, but hey, I also was starting to doubt my memory. Finally, at the point where both of us believed that we'd gone that extra bit too far, the Spirit House dawned upon us like a true place of spirituality and place of reverence for all things alcoholic.
.

The place ended up being pretty damn cool and worth the trouble that it took to get there. The drink and food was sublime and for a second night in Vientiane, the company wasn't too bad either! Not a bad way to close out day two in Laos.

The Spirit House, overlooking Thailand - Vientiane - Laos