Laos - Vientienne

Vientienne
After leaving Nong Khai in Thailand, we hit the road and headed to Vientienne, the capital of Laos. What a cool city, maybe the most pleasant of all the capitals we have visited. The best food anyway! It is very french, and a lot of expat's live there.

Looking back across at Thailand from the Mekong river-front

We actually should have taken the time to read who this guy was! 

                                          

This is Patuxai, a tribute to arc de triomphe in France. However, the difference is that the Americans donated enough concrete to Laos to build a runway. They decided that they really didn't need a new runway and built this with the American concrete instead. 

A view from the top of Patuxai - down Vientienne avenue. It is hard looking at this to realise that Laos is actually a very  poor country. 

Another view from the top

And yet another view from the top...

We visited a museum/charity called COPE (google them) who make prosthetic limbs for bomb victims. If there is one thing we will take away from Laos, it is how ripped off they have been from the Vietnam war. It is actually the most bombed country in the world, from a war they were never part of. Anyway, since the end of the war 20,000 Laotians have been killed or injured through UXO (unexploded ordinances - the things in the picture) One third of the 580,000 cluster bombs dropped on Laos in the war never detonated, making curous toys for little kids to discover and blow themselves up with, and a lucrative and dangerous scrap metal recovery trade.
160 "bombies" cluster bombs fit in a huge casing which is dropped, and all 160 go off. In this picture you can see all the bomblets. 

The red area shows the bombing missions over Laos. Anyway, thats my rant about the little country getting knocked around by the big country! (google award winning "bomb harvest" for an interesting perspective, its really really good) 

Baguettes... 

As any traveller to hot countries will agree, good jandals are very useful. These black havianas have been lifelong friends for the trip, until this terribly sad moment when we were racing to catch the bus. Snap! Unfortunately it was a sudden death of the strap, as with all losses it is so much easier to accept when it is a slow wear-through.  Luckily Rachael and Amy in their foresight had sent a new pair only a month earlier..