Today we went to Buddha Park to see the sights and enjoy one of Vientiane’s most popular tourist destinations.

Another One Rides the Bus

Riding the bus in Laos may sound mundane, but it is actually quite different from the U.S. in some ways. When you arrive at the bus station, you immediately get on your bus without prepaying for a ticket. You wait on the bus, and it eventually starts to move with the doors open. The bus pulls out of the station with the doors open and only closes them once it hits the main road. The doors remain open for a longer period of time to allow people waiting outside the station to jump on before the bus fully leaves. The Lao bus doesn’t leave on time, which I fully expected since everything is on Lao time here.

Courtesy of Laos Guide 999

You can recognize Lao buses because they are lime green and say “Donated by the people of Japan” on the side. Notice the Japanese flag on the side of the bus. The buses are pretty ok and have air conditioning, which was unexpected.

You pay 12,000 kip for one ride, and someone comes down the aisle and collects all the bills mid-ride and gives you a ticket.

I thought that the Lao bus would be slow, but I was actually pleasantly surprised that the bus moved quickly. Whenever there was a stop, the bus driver would open the doors a few minutes before the stop and drive with the doors open. The person leaving would push the stop button and promptly hop out of the bus while it was still moving. The bus would then speed away and close the doors after a few minutes. This happened at every bus stop! I was mildly entertained, to say the least.

Buddha Park

We arrived at Buddha Park and paid 40,000 kip each since we’re foreigners. (Lao people only have to pay 10,000 kip each.) Buddha Park is known for its wide variety of Buddha and Buddhist statues and is famous for a massive statue of a reclining Buddha. One of the most popular things to do is to climb to the top of a structure located towards the beginning of the park. You enter through the open mouth and go up several sets of stairs to reach the top.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

This is the structure that we climbed. You enter the structure through the mouth.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

Inside the mouth of the beast! (I was trying really hard not to lose my balance since I was a little too big to fit inside comfortably.)

Taking a photo inside this mouth is probably one of the most common tourist photos of Laos. Still, I had to take one since it looks pretty cool. At least it’s a less common tourist photo since Vientiane doesn’t exactly get a lot of visitors.

I had trouble fitting inside the mouth since I am considered to be pretty tall in Laos. I then had to bend at the waist to enter past the throat of the face. I really didn’t like that since I had to ball up! Inside, the walls are all textured and resemble dragon scales. Once we started walking around, we saw all these clay (?) statues of Buddhist figures through small windows cut into the walls. We weren’t allowed to enter this room, but we were able to enter the floors above and below with other statues.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

We climbed some gnarly stairs to get to the top of the structure. All the stairs were uneven and really thick. Most of the stairs were narrow and wet with no handrails. We were cautious, and thankfully made it to the top without any problems. We sat on top of the structure and took in the stunning view of the whole park.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

I summitted the structure at Buddha Park!

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

Here Hannah and I are having fun right before it started to rain.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

View from the top of the structure

A Stroll in the Park

After we came down from the structure we walked around the park and got up close and personal with the statues. We stood in front of the giant reclining Buddha statue. He was absolutely massive!

We stopped and had a fresh coconut halfway through our stroll. The coconuts in Laos and Thailand are much sweeter than Hawaiian coconuts and have a superior taste in my opinion. Fresh coconuts taste completely different than bottled coconut water because they have flavor. I think U.S. bottled coconut water is gross!

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

I’m not exactly sure what stories these figures convey in Buddhism, but I will share some of the most interesting photos from our stroll in the park.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

An archer preparing to fire his bow

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

A giant figure holding a woman who fainted

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

A naga surrounded by two women with long fingers (This naga has six heads, meaning he is relatively powerful.)

Refer back to my post about nagas in Buddhist imagery

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

A fountain with four faces surrounded by dancing women

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

An interesting staircase to the top of a temple-like structure. Christina P. climbed to the top and said there wasn’t anything inside the room up there.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

A huge meditating figure with the lower half of a serpent (?)

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

And finally, my favorite: a man trying to get his lazy cricket to get up.

The Rest of the Evening

After we took the bus back, we got smoothies and had Thai food at this great place called Salavan. (The restaurant is named after a province in the south of Laos that borders Thailand.) We walked back and saw Nam Phou (a famous Lao fountain) working. I was excited since I haven’t seen it in action once in the whole month I’ve been here.

Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)

Look how pretty Nam Phou is when it’s working!