Wat walk, Vientiane, Laos

Thankfully I had a good 10 hours sleep thanks to exhaustion and the great massage id had down the road – only $6 for an hour! The private room at Dream Hostel 2 was dark, quiet and clean with a comfortable bed. I made sure I got up in time for the excellent free breakfast (choice of pancakes, French toast, omelette, scrambled or fried eggs with toast and bacon and tea/coffee). Once my hunger was sated, I set off to explore. I’d seen on a map at the hostel that it was pretty much a straight line of wats (temples) leading to the main temple, Wat Si Saket (Vientiane’s oldest and most important wat – the rest were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge during the late 1970s).

Boy it was hot, after the first few temples I took out my umbrella to use as a parasol. The pagados (temple buildings) were so beautiful and majestic under the scorching sun. high inverted V shaped rooves with elongated sections reaching towards heaven. They had nagas (dragons) and garuda (a large bird-like creature that appears in both Hinduism and Buddhism) standing guard under the eaves. Nagas and garudas are natural enemies but when they are depicted together it represents peace. 

The sky overhead is mainly a grey cloudy haze with the bright sun periodically busting through, drenching everyone with roasted light. The range of russet reds to earthenware browns picked out with white and gold stood out in sharp contrast with the wide variety of bright luscious greens of the palms and vegetation surrounding the wats. The heat is omnipresent, with the oppressive sun still streaming its way through the cloud cover. 

Most of the wats are complexly void of tourists, making photo taking an absolute pleasure. This enabled me to choose the exact angles I wanted without having to carefully choose shots which excluded my fellow camera-slung rucksack-ridden tourists. Every now and then, the vivid orange of a monks robe caught my eye. They were generally sitting under trees or in doorways by the wats. Either praying or just sitting in quiet contemplation. In Buddhist culture monks are forbidden to eat after midday, so I imagine they want to conserve energy. I did my best not to disturb them.