We took some time in Vientiane to map out the rest of our trip. If you can believe it, we actually feel like we're running out of time!! We originally hoped to visit some of the off-the-beaten-track / less-touristy southern parts of Laos. However, since we had to plan our schedule around the upcoming busy/expensive Lunar New Year and we still have 3-4 more countries to visit before heading to the middle-east (before it gets too hot there), we decided we'd have to skip the South and fast-track a bit.
Vientiane, the capital of Laos, was our final stop for this country. Here, we walked around to check out the various temples and monuments, discover some cute restaurants/cafes, and stumble upon a pretty fun night market along the river. Dom also finally found a hair dresser that he likes… too bad it's expensive to fly to Laos from Canada! Of all the temples we visited here, our favourite was the Golden Stupa (Pha That Luang).
We also visited the Buddha Park, located located 25km from Vientiane. This park contains several Buddha and Hindu statues that looked really cool when we first entered the park. But beware! As you get closer, you quickly realize that the statues are not ancient relics carved from stone - they were actually made of concrete just within the last 70 years. A bit of research revealed that this place was essentially set up as... a tourist trap :) Anyway, it still made for some fun photography.
