The capital on the Mekong river doesn’t have much to offer. There is the usual night market where we went shopping. As it caters mainly for the locals there where loads of stalls selling fake luxury brands. These are quite famous and you can see people in Gucci, Versace or Dior everywhere 😂 Even better are the pyjamas of these brands, some people wear them for the day 😆
Of course we had to buy one of those, each got one with matching sunglasses. Aaron in Chanel and me in Versace 😎
They also had the weirdest combos ever, looking for a batik slayer shirts?
We also looked for a ship going south, but again „no boat“ 😆
Besides this we also drove out to the Buddha park. A kind of theme park with Buddhas in all kind of forms and shapes. All done in concrete and some already quite worn down, together with the heaps of Chinese tourists flying their drones it was quite entertaining 😄
Posing with the other tourists
More serious was the stop at the COPE visitor center. Informing about the aftermath the long years of bombing had and still has on the country. How people adapted, using the bomb scraps for every day items, how to manufacture simple prosthetics, etc. Today COPE and their mobile clinic visit remote villages to provide customized and fitted modern artificial limbs.
Art installation depicting the release of cluster bombs
UXO
Lamp made out of a mortar
Simple spoon made of scrap
Outgrown and old handmade prosthetics
We also lounged a bit at our hotel pool and didn’t do the three things we planned to do in Vientiane: Moto maintenance, laundry and check for Cambodia 🇰🇭 visa. So a bit of foreshadowing here 😅
Did I mention the smog?