Vientianne

First stop in Laos was the capital, Vientienne. I arrived in the evening, saw the sights the next morning and then left in the afternoon! What was there to see? Many Buddhist stupas and temples (Wats) the Victory gate and the national museum.

Here is a fat Buddha at one of the temples.

The Victory gate was supposedly made with concrete donatd by America to make a new runway. The tourist sign on the building says, in an admirable outbreak of bleak honesty, "From a closer distance it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete".

This stupa is a national emblem and supposedly contains Buddhas breastbone (like Jesus, Buddha has an overabundance of bones distributed over the world) and covered in gold.

After these I went to the national museum, which proceeded in Chronological order and started well, but ended up with just "picture of comrade soandso", "Comrade whatsisfaces hat" and " meeting of Laos delegation with Comrades from Peoples Republic of thingumyjig".