Laos

Probably the biggest French influence in town, this is the Asian version of the "Arc du Triumph". It has a more popular name however -- "the Vertical Runway". The Laoations ran out of concrete halfway through building this marvel, so with the generocity of the Americans who were helping to build thier airport at the time, sent a little extra concrete to help finish it. The first view is looking twords the river and the center of the capital Vientien, and the second picture looks to the rear of the monument. As you can see, not a city of highrises! In fact, this city is the smallest and dustiest capital city I've ever seen. There are only a few paved roads, the rest are dirt and full of creators.

Some countries have taxies, some have busses, and then others have "tuk tuk's". This is a classic example of

what an ordinary tuk tuk looks like in Laos. Even though we have them in Thailand, they are a little better made. In Laos all they do is weld together a motorcycle to a cart, and presto. It's quite an adventure when you're going down dirt roads and there are no shocks on these things.

Here we have the ever popular morning market. It's a whole lot more popular in the evenings though when people get off work. The old evening market use to be like this but now it sells food and local vegtables ,

soooo that is most popular in the morning. They're smart like that! This is where they sell a lot of silver items and some gold and gems as well. Laos is famous for it's silver. Before they had coin currency, they used to buy things with balls of sliver with a seal on them that would make them official. They would be of certain wieghts and sizes, so some where not exactly pocket change especially if you were making a large purchase. All the shops were the same, one next to the other depending on what part of the building you were in. It's so commpetitive that everyone fights (or sweet talks) you for your business.

This is where the "Emerald Buddah" was once kept before the Thai's sacked Vienteen and took it back to Bangkok where it is today (in the Grand Palace). It's not a very big statue unlike the one next to this monk. It's also made from a single piece of Jade and not Emerald. It's probably no more than 30 centimeters tall either.This image of Buddah (on the left)is in the manner of "calming the waters" although it could also be misconstruen as an attitude of "No, no it's alright. Everything's under control", or "Wo. There's no way you're getting in here, buddy" by the passing of your regular Western folk.

This one I think should be classified as "Chastity Buddaha". However, if the Laoations are anything like the Thai's (which they are), this is one image I'm sure few people have around thier house, or know much about. You just have to go a kareeokee bar!

This is a "stupa" built a couple hundred years ago. It's much like the Christian idea of have "steeples", they point up to heaven (or nirvana) with a few other religious intracacies surounding the shape of the monument. The religion is far more relaxed in Laos than it is in Thailand do largely to it being a Communist state. This guy was studing at a monistary school here, and his English was surpisingly good. They leed a pretty simple life.

This picture cracks me up! It really doens't give the full effect of what was to come that night, but there must have been about 4-5 places like this, one next to the other. This is only one side of the stage where live bands would blare their music throught the night during the biggest festival of the year. How many speakers does one need here anyway?!! It was so deafining, but the people here are very musical and were loving every minute of it. It was so crowded here it seemed like Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

This was the most exciting thing about being in Vientein this time of year. After the monks finish their three

month fast they have a fesival of floating little boats made from flowers down the Mekong river with small candles on them that really look pretty on at night. The next day the races began! People would flock to the shore to watch thier favorite teams race down the river in their long-boats. It was a lot of fun and the crowd really got into it, the chearing was fierce! On

the other side of the shore is Thailand. The Mekong river is a major river that divides the two countires and they just recently built a bridge to join them together. In the opening cerimony the King of Thailand cut the ribbon but went no further than half way across the bridge because of an old curse that was placed on any Thai king that were to cross the Mekong. I beleive that it stems back to when Thailand invaded Laos and took the Emerald Buddah back to Bangkok.

~ The Last Boat Home ~