Out and about in Vientiane

(Alfred: While Ruairí goes galivanting about, I am left in charge of guarding the most precious possession of our household - the internet connection. Just in case anyone out there thought I wasn't pulling my weight or anything. Just wanted to make a point.

Oh, yeah - blogspot is doing its usual wonderful job with photo placement so you may have to hunt a bit to match up text with photo! Have fun!)


SIGHTS OF VIENTIANE
Vientiane is a really nice place to live and it is amazing how quickly you get used to things that seemed remarkable and unusual at first. One is the incredible variety of temples, wats, stupas and other fabulously ornate buildings that you find on pretty much every street. Just cycling for fifteen minutes from our house to the centre of town we pass at least five large temples (a short detour would take in two more and a giant Vietnamese pagoda). Last Sunday I decided to stretch my legs and do a proper cycle for a few hours and took a few photos of things I came across (Alfred: Actually, some of these photos are from other days but let's go along with the fiction). The first set of photos is from the Victory Arch in the very centre of town, referred to as Patuxay (Alfred: Because, em, wait, don't tell me .... that's its name!). Its alternate name is the Vertical Runway as it was built with cement donated to the Lao government for the building of a runway at Wattay Airport. The alternate name fits as it is a rather unimpressive concrete block whose decorations never got finished (with the exception of a reasonably pretty ceiling inside). The information plaque does, however, take the prize for the most honest description of a national monument I have ever seen!

 
 

Around the Arch are some nice fountains, a Gong of Peace (you can see Ireland at three o'clock) and a huge wedding-cake building across the road which is the Lao National Assembly.

 

 


North-east of Patuxay you find That Luang, one of the most important sites in all of Lao: its golden stupa decorates the banknotes and is a centrepiece of national celebrations. Around it are temples and other religious buildings, including one with a remarkable reclining Buddha.

 

 

 

There was also this amazing bird which Martine identified as an Adjutant Bird or Adjutant Stork sitting on a wall in one of the temples in the centre of town (we think Wat Simeuang but we're not sure).

 I then headed south along the eastern edge of town, a long, long, highway, dusty and pretty much uninteresting except that when I looked to my left I could see what pretty much looked like countryside, reminding me of how small Vientiane really is.

CATS

Having two cats has really had a major impact on our lives (Alfred: Listen to the roar of laughter from cat-owners and even non-cat-owners everywhere! Duh!). Food, litter trays, vaccinations, spaying (to come), sources of cat litter, aggressive neighbouring cats, getting stuck up trees, demanding affection and clawing their way up your legs if they don't get it fast enough. Astérix (the smaller, male cat) was dropped off at this house to the previous tenant when he was very, very small and tends to want to suckle all the time (Alfred: And people thought I was joking about the lactating! - see earlier blog. And you won't be surprised to hear that Ruairí is wearing shorts a lot less now!) But they are great fun and great company and good cockroach-killers!

Obélix at front, Astérix behind.

 OTHER ODDITIES

Hot dog. It was 29 degrees that day. I mean ... really?

There is a prize for the first person who can guess what Martine is doing in this photo.

 I am used to having my name misspelled in a massive variety of hideous ways, in Ireland as much as abroad. But this one takes the biscuit. Already in Laos I have been Mr Martin, Mr Oliver and (in a wonderful flashback moment to Rwanda) Mr Ruairí. But the girl drawing up the lease for our new house took photocopies of our passports and this is how she filled out my name! (Alfred: Any particular reason why 'Irish' gets a bigger font and bold print? Just asking).

MOVING HOUSE

Our present house

 Shortly - next Monday in fact - we will be moving to our new house. It will be a wrench leaving this house, where we have been very happy and which was very handy for the centre of town. But its small size with no room for teaching and the complete absence of a garden (Alfred: Or any sunlight, to be honest) meant we really had to look for somewhere else. Mind you, renting a house here is not a very straightforward proposition, the most awkward part of which is the necessity to pay an entire year's rent up front (in our case, $6,600). This becomes even more hilarious when your landlord says he doesn't have a bank account and wants it in cash! (Alfred: HE changed his mind, under a little bit of pressure!)  Now the stand-off is that he (and the agency) want the money transferred into an account whose number they have given us BEFORE we have inspected the house (to see the furniture has been installed and the repairs carried out) and before we have signed the contract. Watch this space.

SKIN WHITENING
I spoke before about how Lao women (and men also) have this thing about skin whitening. But this ad on the side of a tuk-tuk really blew me away! Is this for real???? (Alfred: Please excuse the quality of the photo - Ruairí was cycling beside the tuk-tuk in heavy traffic outside the main market and, to add to the fun, the driver didn't look like he wanted to be photographed!)