An unexpected day out to Vientiane

We said good bye to Christian and Laura, friendly German cyclists with whom we shared possible itineraries for our cycling round the world. They were on their way to China (via Laos) and going to cycle through Tibet to Nepal!! How adventurous!
As our Thai visa expired on 27th January, we had to go out to Laos via the Friendship Bridge in order to get back into Thailand and get another 15 days visa. After waiting for an hour at the Lao border for our passports to be stamped, John suggested we cycle to Vientiane to visit Wat Sisaket again as it had so enthralled us 4 years ago. He also proposed to have lunch at Le Vendome, a slightly faded atmospheric French restaurant where we had enjoyed a delicious supper 4 years ago too. John, remarkably, remembered exactly where the restaurant was and we were savouring an asparagus and vegetable gratin (mmh!) when a Chinese New Year Dragon and noisy procession danced past the restaurant...

As the restaurant closed at 2, we decided to cycle for dessert to the "Healthy & Fresh Bakery", only a few roads away. Arriving there, we were hailed by an athletic looking lady sitting on the terrace. We sat at her table and ordered a Mango Crumble and a Cinnamon Apple Pie - they were delicious :) ...you can see how we are getting obsessed with food...
We spent the next hour sharing cycling experiences. Bernadette, from Holland, had been cycling for 18 months in Asia and her enthusiasm was infectious. She had done many long cycle trips on her own and gave us several pointers for our possible global trip, one being that the Karakoram wasn't as dangerous as anticipated. Her website (unfortunately) is in Dutch (www.escaper.info) (www.bernadette.reisprofiel.nl)

Wat Sisaket was as we remembered: magically beautiful. It had been built by Chao Anou, a Lao prince educated in Bangkok, who encouraged a renaissance of Lao fine arts and literature, and is perhaps the oldst temple in Vientiane. Its ochre and warm yellow painted cloister exuded peace with its small niches containing over 2000 silver and ceramic Buddha images and the 300 or so seated and standing Buddas resting on long shelves below the niches.









We also admired the haang song nam pha (image watering rail), a 5m long wooden trough carved to resemble a serpent, used during Lao New Year to pour water over Buddha images for
ceremonial cleansing.

The faded but exquisite murals in the sim(ceremonial hall) and flowered ceiling were so lovely, John decided to have a peep in the monks quarters where he remembered beautiful murals there too. A young friendly monk, Anzig, came out and chatted with us, happy to be able to practice his English. He came from Savannakhet, had 10 brothers and sisters and had been studying in the temple for 4 years.


We rode back to the Friendship Bridge at flying speed, Wat Sisaket etched in our memory, bathed in the late afternoon glow, with palm trees swaying in the background and pots of bougainvillea, of banana, coconut and mango trees scattered around the cloister.