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We knew it was going to be a long bus journey from Savannakhet. It took just over 11 hours with various stops for passengers to buy food and the bus driver to load on anything from bags of rice to 50 oak doors! Finallly we arrived tired and sweaty at Vientiane where we planned to stay three nights.
We decided to have a treat here and checked into a brand new hotel (we have a good excuse, the guest houses are almost as much money so why not!). All the home luxuries we've not had for a long time were much appreciated, from a soft mattress to a hot shower, lcd tv and air con!
Vientiane is by far the nicest capital we have been to so far, it is well developed and will continue to develop in the near future, a great place for tourists.
Our first night was a very early one, with Gem not feeling well :(
The next morning Matt decided we would explore the city and had found a great cycle tour around all the important sites, so our rupert bear adventure began - see pics. We saw all the major sites in the morning and stopped for lunch on the riverfront before continuing our cycle onto the COPE Centre.
We were really saddened by the story of the COPE centre and the documentary and displays we saw there. The link to their website is http://www.copelaos.org/about.php if you want to read more but basically we learnt that during the Vietnam war there were 500 bombing missions (see picture of Army Information provided by USA intelligence) by the USA over Laos. It is the most bombed country in the world. The USA thought it was an intellegent idea to bomb Laos in a secret campaign lasting over 7 years to stop the Vietnamese army from being able to stockpile ammunition. A total of 260,000,000 cluster bombs were dropped on Laos, each bomb containing between 300 and 400 clusters. Between 20 and 40% of these bombs did not explode and are scattered throughout the countryside on farmland and in villages. With scrap metal being worth so much money and also the clusters looking like fruit (very much like the fruit we tried in Savannakhet) kids often find them and think they are something to play with causing horrendous injuries and death. Adults use metal detectors to find the scrap metal to sell and pay for their children's education or just to put food on the table. Cope help to safely clear the bombs but it will take 100 years to clear all of them. The USA has only donated 20million dollars since 1992 to help, bearing in mind they donate 160 million to Pakistan per year this sum seems absolutely ridiculous. Laos was never at war, very sad.
The next day we went to the Vietnamese Embassy to get our visas ready for Vietnam on the 19th July. Unlike other boarders we've crossed so far we need a visa in advance. After this we took the local bus to a place called Xieng Khuan (Buddha Park). This was a 24km journey and cost us 40p each for the ride. (Although it was worse than being on a tube train as it was so packed and the floor looked like it may cave in at any minute! - all adds to the experience!). The entrance to the park was 30p so a cheap day :) We took lots of photos at the Buddha park, it was built in 1958 by a Yogi Priest Shaman who merged Hindhu and Budhist philosophy. This made for some pretty impressive statues! Breathtaking, a wonderful place, we spent a long time here just wandering. Nana - this is the picture on your next postcard :)
We took the bus back to the city and booked our tickets to Vang Vieng and went our to celebrate our time in Vientiane with a nice meal and watched a great local band play lots of British classics. Matt's brother Steve plus many other backpackers we've met highly recommend Vang Vieng so we are really looking forward to it.
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