sansara : other side of river

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Travels / Other side of river

30.09.2009 : Vientiane, Laos

(published on 15.10.2010)

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The world is just how you want to see it. It can be felt especially well by people with cameras. And no matter how nonpicturesque shores of Mekong in Vientiane were, my desire to see something different there was too strong. And I managed to fulfil it.

And now looking through these pictures after forgetting my own actuall feelings there I can only think: what an amazing place!

I even managed to find a boat: a dinghy bar.

And you would not even imagine that actually there is total destruction/construction on this shore.

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And by the way other shore is already Thailand.

I am always very interested in the kind of places when one is separated from the other with only an imaginary line. Eventhough Laos is quite close to Thailand, people look similar, food tastes similar there are certain differences. Take a look at local temple, Wat Mixay.

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From the first sight there is no difference from Thai temples. They have same silhouette but still something is totally different. And the first thing I can put to words is that everything which would have been golden and glittering in Thailand is yellow and mat here.

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Probably the style of decorations and Buddha's images is little different but here I cannot be totally sure because I do not remember thai details so well.

Silhouette of roof is very similar but there are also blue and green colours in decorations. And thai temples are almost always just red and golden.

And I do not remember seeing this kind of fence with dense row of stupas anywhere else.

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The last story ended with sad fact of temples being turned into markets. And to continue the story I note that this temple is either turned into school or just united with it. And crowd of noisy schoolchildren runs out to yard during breaks.

They run after each other and ride bicycles along temple's fence.

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They climb statues of protectors by entrance, jump from them as it is a sportsground.

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Monks look at them emotionlessly standing by the same fence... and smoking! Yes, a monk with a cigarette is quite ordinary sight in Laos. Probably at the time Buddha was living there still were no cigaretters and so he could not forbid them, same as mobile phones, players, gameboys and tvs.

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Blue tie! Red tie! What does it mean?

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Seniour schoolgirls are without them at all.

The most beautiful girls from all asians are in Thailand but here they are also nice. Neighbours, of course.

Oh these lips.

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And these are little ones who grow to become such kinds of beauties.

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Do you know that asian opinion of beauty of their women and western approach to asian beauty are quite different? Particularly lop-ears are not considered a fault by them.

Another photo of same girl, she's very cute.

And these are lao cool boys. But the coolest boys are still in Indonesia.

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This is security of some place and pasteboard girl faded on sun. I could not take picture of usual kind of dress lao girls wear and so this pale silhouette is going to be the only evidence: they wear similar skirts with broad stripe but not so long, usually little down their knees.

The same greeting gesture in design of balconies.

And this is how central streets and houses look like.

It's little bit similar to north of Thailand.

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And this is local transport - tuk-tuk. When you walk on the street you are always asked: "Tuk-tuk?" Then I always want to answer: "Who's there?"

Benches in passenger area make up nice conditions for noon siesta. Lieying on them and sleeping is still not top of luxury, once I saw a hammock hung right inside tuk-tuk!

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Another used type of transportation is bicycle. There is always shopping basket on its handle bar.

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Lao people like various hay and wicker things. Bottles on ordinary office stands with hot and cold water are always decorated with special wicker covers. This is a seller of bamboo dressers and wicker boxes.