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Day 50- Frogs and Buddha

Last night we arrived in Vientiane pretty late. We were all hungry so decided to go for dinner I went for a classic frog. 


Our first full day started in Laos was in Vientiane. This is the capital city of Laos. As we only had half a day we opted for a tuk tuk tour. We started with a chat to Wat Sisaket. This was built between 1818 and 1924 by King Chao Anou. This temple survived the Thai invasion in one piece making it the oldest temple in Vientiane. The temple is of Bangkok style design and contains 6840 Buddha statues. It was stunning! 



The second stop was a visit to the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE). Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world per capita in history. Over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam war with approximately 80 million unexploded after the war finished. 30% of all bombs dropped during the war failed to detonate and there are still huge areas with unexploded ordinance (UXO). Each year 100 people are dying or injured from accidents involving UXOs. Although there are efforts trying to clear the UXO’s due to a lack of funding these efforts have been hampered. COPE aim to help those affected by UXO’s providing things like prosthetics and rehabilitation for those affected. I have put a link down to their website below if you would like to donate or look into this great cause further! 




The third stop was to Patuxai. This was designed to resemble Paris’s Arc fu Triomphe. No one is quite sure what victory it is supposed to be celebrating. It was constructed 
in 1968 using concrete donated by the USA for building a new airport hence the nickname Vientiane’s “vertical tower”. You can climb to the top to see a stunning view of the city. 






The final stop on our tour was to That Luang which is the national symbol of Laos. The stupa was first built in 1566 and was said to contain a hair from a Buddha. The structure was reconstructed in 1930. The tapering gold spire rises 45 metres into the sky. 




In the afternoon we took a four hour bus journey to Vang Vieng. Along the way we passed through a few villages. It is very apparent how poor these people are. I could not help but be humbled. Watching mothers watch their children and knowing the likelihood is that these children will never have the choice and opportunity that I have is heartbreaking. These parents cannot afford to send their children to university means that these children will probably continue the cycle of poverty. I realised how lucky we are in the UK. If we don’t like our job we can easily change. We can change industries, job types are study if we want. Yes it’s not always easy but we have so many options in the UK that just really aren’t available here. This also made me think what can we do to help and I don’t yet have the answer but I’m working on it. We can’t fix things for people but surely we can help improve people’s lives in some way and surely that would be more rewarding? 


I will keep you posted if I figure out a solution but in the meantime we went for dinner and I had the most amazing fresh water fish. 




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